Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are just a few pics I was able to capture of some Black Racer's on the property.

enjoy!, ~Doug




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

Just about an hour after posting the previous Black Racer pics, I took my dog out for a walk, and just as I got close to the front door, there in front of me was yet ANOTHER RACER!!!,.....I tell ya', these things are all over the place in this area, and this is only 25-30 feet from the main highway(A1-A) that runs along the beach!

I waited in front of the hedge for a while to see if it would make another appearance so I could take a photo, but it never came back out....GRRR!

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

That's really cool! I wish Racers were that common up here but as things are we know of only 1 confirmed denning site with 6 adult snakes using it. Any other racers found in the state recently have been road kill and located within about 20 miles of this population. It's monitored fairly closely and I had a chance to get down there last week and locate the first snake to come out of the den this year. It's really cool to go back every year and see the exact same snakes. The snakes seem to be relatively unaffected by biologists interacting with them but this will be the last year there is funding to keep an eye on that den. I don't know how much longer this population will hold on though -- it started off with 9 snakes when it was discovered 4 years ago (we thought they were extirpated from VT). No juveniles have been seen and two adults have been lost to predators while one more was killed by an ATV since then. There is an ATV trail that passes literally within a few feet of the den entrance and a logging road about 30 feet away. The population is restricted to a power line corridor that is intersected by an interstate highway less than a mile from the den and in the other direction the corridor buts up against some intensively-hayed farm fields. The ultimate goal last year was to identify where the females go to lay their eggs so that the land could be managed to increase hatch rates but unfortunately the radio transmitter fell off of the 1 female we caught before she made it to wherever she was going. Anyway, only time will tell what happens to these guys in the end.

Here are a couple pics of the first guy out of the den this year. He's referred to as F1 and the picture of him in a tree was taken after his release. As discussed in the "what kind" board the other day, our northern racers seem only to take to the trees when they feel threatened and do not climb very high:

Wow, those guys are quite the rarity up your way. I'm glad some folks are trying there best to safeguard the population that is known to exist there. I hope some funding will continue to come in for their behalf. That's too bad about the couple that were killed. Nice pics of the first one to exit the den this year!,......nature at it's best!

Good luck to all those Northern Racers, looks like they need all the help AND luck they can get!...keep the effort going!

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