Reptile & Amphibian Forums

all this very interesting talk about melanism, altitude,etc brings to mind somethig that has puzzled me for years. As a youngster I was facinated by the way the fence lizards changed from almost black on cool mornings and got lighter as they basked in sun later in the day. I once caught a Pacific rattlesnake on Pine Mtn. [Ventura Co. Calif.] at an alt. of about 5000'. It was the darkest one I had ever seen, almost totaly black. After a short time [a couple of weeks?] it had changed just like the lizards did. I still do not fully understand this. Explanation please? Try to keep it simple, remember who you are dealing with. theOLDherper 'Pete'

Black pigment absorbs heat.....when the sun is low in the sky they are trying to absorb as much heat as possible. As the sun rises they lighten up as they do not need to absorb as much heat.......

Some even think that after years of captive line breeding snakes lose their black pigment because they don't need it anymore to absorb the heat from the sun......

Reduced black Pyromelana, Knoblochi, Thayeri, Annulata and others have expressed this through years of line breeding......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Thank you. Yes, I understand the heat absbsorbsion, but I did't know this was something that snakes were capable of over such a short period. theOLDherper 'Pete'

Many snakes can change color, like boas, and of course our Az Black rattlesnake, which is very similar to Helleri. They can go from Jet black to very lite grey in a couple of hours.

Also pythons, The omepelli python is known for this. But so do Childrens pythons, and even olive pythons. At night they can be almost translucent.

Also Black pigment is not only for absorbing heat. Most watersnakes are dark, In fact many diurnal snakes are dark or black. Again here in Az, we have one species of snake that is either black or red, our coachwhip, hmmmmmmm diurnal snakes that frequent hot dry deserts in the day. And its friggin hot all the time. So why would they need to absorb heat?

The answer is very simple. Black also emitts heat. So they can cool off more efficently then liter colored snakes.

The tendency is for lite snakes to be speices that move in cooler temps and dark species that move out in hotter temps.

Lets look at lizards again, Our chucks are very dark and mostly live in crevices. Desert iggies are very lite and mostly shelter in burrows. During the summer, any rocks above the ground will be hotter then hadies. So a crack dweller better be able to lose heat. THese two species occur in the exact same areas, so its not a cooler or hotter climate.

Even with people, dark skinned peoples originated in hotter climates, why would they need to gain heat in hot climates? Lite skinned peoples tend to come from colder climates, wouldn't they be dark.

Things like curly hair, broad noses and dark skin are all adaptions for a hot climate.

Coming from a hot climate, I tend to look at dark animals as ones who lose body heat quickly. Therefore they can work in the shade.

Which is very funny, most snakes tend to stay in the dark, shaded areas most of their active periods, also the vast majority of the time they are underground. Cheers

Interesting information Frank......
Thanks for sharing that.
I never thought of black emitting heat as well......Hmmmmmmmm
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Pete, I found that common with Arizona Black rattlesnakes. They can change shades of color pretty fast. From a really black to a very lightly patterned with browns. Almost doesn't look like the same snake at times.

Could be a temperature thing.

Could be a stress thing.

Kerby...
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Here's a link to something that should answer your question...

Gerry
Link

GerryG - Thank you for the link. Excelent article. A bit deep for me but I will read it over a few more times with my dictonary at hand. At least now I know it wasn't my imagination. theOLDherper 'pete'