Here are some pics and commentary on the ratsnakes I found on my recent vacation to northern Kyushu. I didn't do a lot of fieldherping, and I didn't take a lot of pics either, so some the photos are repeats from previous trips. I apologize ahead of time for the lack of commentary, but hopefully some fun discussions will arise.
I'll start out with Elaphe quadrivirgata, the Japanese Four-lined Ratsnake. Quads are common, and easily observed. While no doubt being more related to ratsnakes than racers, they nonetheless fill what most American herpers consider to be a racer (Coluber) niche. I imagine that they will be given their own genus one of these days.
Here are some pics of yearlings, that are indeed hard to find while fieldherping........luckily you can see them quite easily on the roads and under cover objects:
Adults are conspicuous........hunting frogs in the late morning hours along and around the groomed paddy systems:
Like racers, one of the best generalist snakes out there, they can and will climb:
I imagine more often than not, quads find what they need on the ground. I watched that snake for a few minutes, and it seemed to be uneasy with the predicament (not me, I kept some distance)……….hopefully it found what drew it up there.
Elaphe climacophora, the Japanese Ratsnake, is similar to obsoletus in habit. Not unlike obsoletus, they can be almost anywhere, but the encounters spike when a forest edge is nearby. For whatever reason, I didn’t take any field guide shots of climacs this year.
Some guide shots:
Here is a field shot from this year:
That one gave itself away by dropping into a stream. I looked over and noted a climac sighting. I don’t know if I am the reason it dropped into the stream or not, but in any case, it wanted to get back to where it came from, so I took a pic.
Perhaps another reason why I closely associate climacs with obsoletus is because I am a sucker for a good barn/shed which is presumably filled with rodents. When you look inside, you find a ratsnake:
It was a nice little reminder of my boyhood days, trying to find as many black ratsnakes as I could, in and among the numerous barns and sheds near my grandparents’ house in Appalachian North Carolina. Unlike Appalachian NC, northern Kyushu doesn’t often produce jewel-like hay-ridden lofts. I searched the same structure in 2007, but for the life of me, I can’t remember if hay was present. In any case, besides the head of a good-sized climac, I also saw a shed skin from a smaller snake, and some largish mustelid scat with snake scales present. Strange bunkmates, considering that the mustelid was probably Martes………stay in the hay dear snake.
I almost missed out on seeing a Japanese Forest Ratsnake (Euprepiophis conspicillatus) this year. On the last day, I gave a serious effort to correcting the issue, and found one. This pic is in situ:
A better view of the habitat:
That one was from ~1000m……….had to play the elevation / temperature game that day, because I struck out on the early morning, low elevation opportunity.
Some field guide shots:
For those who are interested in more pics and commentary, I posted a ratsnake report last year on the asian subforum. Not many lurkers over there, so I posted here on the main forum this time around.
Shane
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