Reptile & Amphibian Forums

More wild snake notes.

This is a diamondback that has come to beg mice this week.

It has come to feed 3 times in the last 6 days. It appears to be attracted to my shop lites. If someone is working, it comes and coils in its usual spot.

A couple of funny events, are when it crawls up to my daughter. Which it appears to like to do, when shes working back there.

The first pic is the first feeding in the series.

The second pic is the second feeding four days after the first.

The third and fourth pics are with my new camera and are the third feeding, two days after the second feeding.

It shows that they can feed fairly often even when the nights are fairly cold. Its been getting in the low fifties and a couple high forties. Enjoy

Cool pics, Frank!!!

//Todd

I just found a yearling bull snake in this old prairie dog hole. The night before was down to 31 degrees. The air temp was in the sixties at most during the day, although the ground was probably warmer.

Either way it was neat... not what I was expecting to see in November at 5,000 ft altitude. It has snowed three times in the past few weeks!

You like those Olympus Cameras. Me too. I think you'll be real happy with the 550 uz

Forks
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http://www.hcu-tx.org

I think so Joe, it does have a cure for what ailed my C-700UZ. And far more.

I do hope to acquire a digital SLR at some time. But I hated carrying an SLR and lens in the bush. And I hated even more, carrying more then one camera.

As you know, I am a herper first and I can be a real camera smasher. As the bloody things simply get in the way.

These UZ's are small and versitale and take a beating. What more can you ask for? OH I know, you can have someone else take the pics, hahahahahahahaha. Cheers

They know you have enough mice to go around! How are you liking the new camera? Lots of new buttons to fiddle with, lol! I heard an unconfirmed report of a king cobra loose yeterday in the city here, scary stuff.
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Todd Hughes

I will know more about that camera in two weeks, thats when I will be back from central america and some south america islands. Cheers

Find 'em and get the pics! Good journey, Frank!

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Todd Hughes

Frank!,.....

I love seein' stuff like that!.....That dude REALLY has the food association thing down pat!!!!!LOL

Great stuff!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Whats so interesting and somewhat funny is this. We get lots of rattlesnakes on my property. If I were to guess I would have to say something like fifty or more.

But some are very very flighty and rattle and take off the second you see them(a good idea around people) and others are like this one, you cannot seen to bother it. It just likes to watch.

Some others run when I try to feed them.

This guy is just like a longterm captive. It stills coiled up, then when the mouse gets near enough, it strikes, and sits and waits for the mouse to die. Whats funny is, I can move the mouse next to it and it will sit tract around looking for something, then come back and eat it. I would love to "know" whats going on in that brain of theirs. Cheers

Same goes for gophersnakes. I really enjoy the different individuals and how they react. Cheers

Me too!...

I do alot of observation in regards to what snakes do as well(forty years worth), and I often wonder what the heck is going on in their little heads!LOL

We both know that most of it is just pure instinct, but sometimes(like you) I see stuff happening that is so unique to one snake, and wonder WHY it is so different than most of the others, and what drives it to do things that are so out of character.....like a Scarlet King I once had that would charge up to the top of the cage when it noticed the lid was coming off the container, to literally "snatch" a pinky from my hand!!

That happens ALL the time with other species/ssp., but not Scarlets!. Or certain Honduran hatchlings that don't seem to mind handling at ALL, while others simply go "bonkers"!!....no matter what!.....of course the WAY they are held has a GREAT amount to do with that, and I consider myself pretty good at
"reading" and anticipating their reactions more than most folks.

Or on another note, the theory that many rattlesnake's natural reaction to rattle has been a disadvantage in places that are heavily populated with human activity, and only gives their presence away so they are more likely to be killed. Thus leading to them to being less abundant than the quieter ones, due to the louder animal's gene pool being depleted by being more apt to being killed by folks. Just the other day I was at a serpentarium, and was looking at animals behind the glass. Most were rather placid from being used to seeing human activity, while certain others would not stop rattling at all even when I held perfectly still for several minutes !

Surely it would also depend on when those animals where placed in those surroundings, meaning they might have only been there a very little while, and where very nervous with the new surroundings and all. That would all play a VERY key role in the way they behaved and reacted to things too.

Anyway, I liked your post on the easy going Rattlesnake(along with many others).

That's NOT to say that if someone walked up to little dude, he wouldn't take the opportunity to bite them right square in the ass either though!!LOL

In any case, I'm done rambling!

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"