Reptile & Amphibian Forums

are they known for playing dead?

I have kept and observed quite a few of these interesting little critters in my day, but I have never known one to "play dead"...All of the apparently dead ones I have seen have been 100% dead, smashed by vehicles....

-AzAtrox

I've kept a few & never observed that behavior. Every species I have observed that in has been one that feeds primarily on toads. There may well be a link between bufotoxin & that behavior.

~~Greg~~

Have never seen that behavior in mine.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Up until a couple of months ago, I would have agreed with everyone else regarding this behavior in Crotes. That was when myself and 2 others witnessed an adult ruber demonstrate that it could turn into a "Hognosed" snake if it wanted!...lol.

After several minutes of being "used" for photographs, it decided that escape and defense was futile, so it flopped over, deflated, and became motionless. It actually made a true "half-hearted" strike forward, then continued over itself until upside down.

Notice how concave the area above the cloaca is. The more you touched the snake, the more "dead" it made itself look. It literally stayed like this for well over 10 minutes. You could actually touch it (press a hook against it's body) and it wouldn't move a muscle.

After righting it back over almost all the way, it assumed a cautious and flattened "live" mode again.

Then finally restored fully "back to life" it regained the familiar Crotalus defensive posture.

All 3 of us had never seen anything like that with a Crote in the field, and I've never heard of it either. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened though to someone else. I was truly amazed at the performance, and if I hadn't witnessed it myself, I don't know what I would have thought about hearing it "after the fact." Please let me know if anyone else has ever seen this in any Crote before.

thats amazing
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Kevin

np

Something for "Ripleys..Believe it or Not"

Pictures of the Year!!

Fantastic..a pacifist Ruber

Al
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Save a Rattlesnake...Skin a Sweetwater Resident!

I keep and have bred sidewinders and have never seen or heard of that behavior before.

Tom

Absolutely great set of photographs. Any chance that ruber was eating toads? ~grin~

~~Greg~~