Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Recently, when I checked on my captives, I found my male generic alterna, normally a perpetual-motion machine, "casters-up" in a corner of his enclosure. Aaaauuuggghhh... When I started to remove him, he slowly righted himself and crawled off. WTF? A short time later I fed him a small mouse which he wolfed (and kept) down as usual. On a hunch I checked the resource documents section of this site and found reference to a paper that Bern Tryon et al had published in 1984 about death-feigning in alterna. Anyone else seen this behavior?

PS Joe - I got this guy from Paul Moody in Ocala who said it originated with you. If you recognize it -- locality? Thanks.

Bill

>>PS Joe - I got this guy from Paul Moody in Ocala who said it originated with you. If you recognize it -- locality? Thanks.
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>>Bill
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It doesn't look familiar, approximately how old is the animal? If it's relatively young I can say for sure I've never seen it. Now it could have been born from parents that I bred or hatched, and his statement would still be true.

Paul got that snake from John Bernardi.

" I found my male generic alterna, normally a perpetual-motion machine, "casters-up""

1. Is it possible he was crawling upside down on the lid and when you opened it he fell and froze?

2. I'd like to see Bern's paper if you find a link.
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Regards, Bill McGighan

Don't think so since my colubrids are in a lidless Melamine rack/tub setup. I'll be glad to pass along a link to the article if I find one.

Bill

The first male Alterna that I caught west of Alpine, played dead. He fought hard when I first picked him up, and then settled down on the walk back to the pickup. Once I reached the pickup I wanted to show my friend what I had caught. Bringing him up towards the hood I realized that he was limp. My buddy thought that I had killed him. So i set him on the hood and he just sat there. So I rolled him over to see if he would move " Nothing" I was scared that I had killed an alterna. So I began to examin him more closely picking him up and rolling him over, completely limp no fighting But a curios little tounge gave it all away. Even though he would not move every 30 seconds or so the little forked tongue would come out and smell if i was still there. After about about 8-10 minutes he flipped over and was and is still absolutely fine and has never done it again.