Hello again Frank. First let me start by saying I am not offended by your statements about me in your post. I think I have a feel for the way you express yourself from our conversations here and I recognize we all have different ways of communicating. So anyhow, here is some comments regarding yours.



< The reason I say that is, sun angle will be different from place to place and material to material( of material the snakes are in). Do you think the same angles are possible in all parts of colubrids ranges. and and >



That is exactly my point Frank. That is why I contend that all snakes in all places are not doing the same things at the same times. By this I mean Florida kings might well be active on the surface in winter, but speckled kings in Kansas are not. They still perform their life functions through the course of the year but not necessarily at the same time. I think it is presumptuous on your part to assume that all populations of snakes behave in the same way. The surest way to extinction is the inability to adapt to varying conditions. This plasticity in behavior has enabled the kingsnake to be a very successful species and to inhabit such contrasting environments as riparian corridors in arid desert to humid lowland coastal areas to open expanses of grassy plains. The first thing that should be considered when determining behavior is why an animal does what it does and when. In nature everything happens for a reason. Please tell me why you would feel it is necessary for all snakes to be active in the winter in all parts of their range? What purpose would this serve? If a milk snake in Wisconsin is well able to feed, breed, grow, shed, etc..and the species is able to thrive and maintain its population in good numbers and thus survive as a species from April to October, why do you feel these snakes have a need to be active in the cold winter months?



< Please understand, you say your doing research, but to me, it seems your on a confirming mission, that is, you only except data that confirms your thoughts. How is that research? Research is to discover new data, not continually confirm old data. >



This puzzles me Frank. Are you familiar with the research projects we have? Some things we record are indeed confirmations of known information. For example, recording species and relative abundance in given areas. In an ever changing world though this is important data. In the course of doing this we make many other discoveries such as range extensions and natural history observations. In addition we do extensive investigations on several species that we focus on in particular. We are not full time researchers but rather a couple of guys that do a lot of cool things on our off days. We have had some minor grants and have had the good fortune to have the support of a corporate sponser, but for the most part we do what we do out of our own pocket because we enjoy it. We have published some of our findings and share our information with the state dept of natural resourses and with university folks. We do a lot of educational programs here in the state and out of state as well, and run and operate the Ky Herp Society. In our free time we spend time with our wives and family lol!



I do consider myself open minded and I will freely admit you have made me think about some possibilities that could exist. Thats the benefit of a forum of this type. Thanks again for the conversation. Phil

[ Show Entire Thread ]