Hi All,
Sorry about the reflections in the pic, it was taken through the glass since sometimes wild hogs will stop feeding if disturbed.
This female hog (an Adirondack monster), grabbed the toad first by the hind leg, then got to the front. But, what do you make of the small white blob that came out of the toad? Its vascularized, if you look at the veins in it. Is that an air sac from the toad, fatty body? Maybe just the lining of the body cavity popping out? It corresponds to the position of the fang. And NO, the toad never popped. After 12 minutes, all the muscles relaxed, it expelled its air, and the snake swallowed it quickly. This toad was a full grown female A. Toad. I've never seen this happen in years of watching feedings.
Some updates since I haven't posted forever. I'd still love to get the www.easternhognose.com site up soon. I'm just so busy that there's no excuse at all other then, no time to sit down and type. There's some really interesting stuff going on with these montain hognoses. We just got a population even father now into the Adirondacks which is just amazing given the low temps up there and short feeding season.
The pockets of animals in the mountains are few, they are all on protected land, and it is now illegal to collect any native NY herp (that isn't on the bag-limit list) without a permit. Just in case anyone is thinking of going up there to find some. We are taking blood to see if the groups moved up to the Adirondacks recently (meaning in the last few hundred years), or if they have been there since the glacier left around 12,000 years ago. Its a fascinating question of biogeography. I'm suspicious that the Northern NY snakes are migrants from the Great Lakes area (or maybe even from the east), and are not related to our Southern sand plain animals (Long Island etc.).
This female is getting an external radio transmitter tomorrow using surgical skin. I'm using this method on a female in the Albany Pine Bush already, and I love this technique. It is short term, but if done right, can be used long term. You have to be diligent however when they go to opaque, or you can lose the snake. But over surgical implanting, I'm loving the ease and painlessness of it to the snake. I'm already finding out some cool data on how they use the scrub oak bases that have been burned down by fire, and where the females choose to nest. Hopefully I won't be a continued slacker, and will get more updates soon.
Very Best,
Kenny B.
