Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We live in a fairly isolated part of Florida, and have a healthy supply of red shouldered hawks that feed primarily on dung beetles (our horse pastures) and occasionally I see them fly off with a snake.

Last week my wife comes home down our long driveway, and sees a hawk lying on its side along the road. Thinking it was dead, she gets out to find it appears nearly dead; it has a fairly small 3' yellow rat snake wrapped around it in such a way that the coil has the front foot of the hawk pinned against its head (foot holding the snake), so the coils of the snake go around the foot and neck of the hawk (as if you put your hand on your cheek and put a rope around your neck and drew it tight). The hawk was nearly passed out, as my wife grabbed its loose foot and neck, it didn't move or blink. My older daughter unwrapped the striking snake which appeared totally unharmed and crawled away fast. The hawk lay there on its side for 2-3 minutes, then jumped up and flew away.

Wish I had it on video!

np

About a year ago I was driving to work, when I noticed this giant crow dragging what looked like a rope onto the road. When I got closer, I could see that the "rope" was struggling; obviously it wasn't a rope at all, but a decent sized garter snake. The crow dropped the snake in the middle of the lane and perched on the curb, appearing to wait expectingly. I swerved to avoid running over the garter, but unfortunatly the car behind me did not. The creepy part was that when I pulled over to make sure the snake was okay, I saw the crow hop off the curb and over to where the snake was. He grabbed the now dead snake and flew off. I always knew that crows were smart, but to use cars as a tool to subdue prey? It was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. In fact I've been kinda leary around crows ever since!

In my animal behavior class we watched a video of crows doing something similar. They aquired some very hard nuts that they couldn't open themselves, so they flew above a busy intersection and dropped the nuts onto the road. After the cars had driven over the nuts and cracked them open, the crows flew down to retreive their meal.
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~Mel

Very cool story!

n/p

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What's the deal? Go post on the bird forum dude! I love to hear natural history notes, especially when they have a natural ending! You say you see those dang vermin with wings eating snakes all the time and then the one time the snake gets the upper hand you go and set the feathered vermin free! Personally I would have watched with glee as the snake killed that raptor's butt and would have hoped that a bunch of his vile, bird-brained cousins and siblings saw what happened and learned a lesson! Next time either let nature take it's course, post on the bird forum, or help the herp and then post it here. It sounds like snakes have it bad enough in your neck of the woods and the last thing they need is some person taking away a much needed predator death! K.E.

Dude........you are part of the problem,not the solution!!
What gives you the right to take away the snakes opportunity for food.
Survival of the fittest is the ONLY way. and it sounds like the bird should have lost.