My post contained a lot of information. That infomation needs lots and lots of discussion to become clear. That you think a couple of paragraghs are suppose to clear up the world is also odd to me.
But instead of disecting the information, in an attempt to understand it. Your first comment is, "see how to talk to us" or some such nonsense. Which sir, if that is your concern, I am totally wasting my time. Your suppose to be interested in the snakes and not me. (as cute and handsome as I am) If you would of picked a basic comment I made and asked for clarification, we, you and I would have been off to a start, not a finish. Then possibly the discussion could grow from there.
These things I mentioned were observed over decades and you expect them to be commuicated in a couple of paragraphs?
Also your seperating each paragraph is highly ineffective. Don't you get that? You do it in order to make a good comeback, not to clarify. That sir, is not how you learn. Remember the task here is you learning(not me)
If you were as smart as you think, you would understand, that in order to address your disection, each paragraph would take a whole post or more. Which would be impossible. So your approach is to win a discussion, not learn the meaning. Your error is, its not an arguement, I could care less what you think about snakes. Your task as the investigator is to learn from this exercise. Its not an exercise in debate.
In our field work, we take little bits of data(observations) and research each one. This takes years, each bit we see, does not give us a clearer picture of the snake(species) as a whole. It only gives us a view of little parts of their lifes. All these little parts, may or may not add up to be important in the lifes of this individual or of this individuals population or eventually its species.
The major problem is, as a researcher, you should not judge your data, only take it. Then research it. Judging data is a very bad habit to get into. Like, we all read snakes hibernate in winter, or brumate. Thats not a problem. But then we find individuals active all year long on our study site. I do know what the books say and what the heresay is. But that does not change the fact that snakes on our study site are active all winter. You see, fact is the snakes are active in winter, heresay is, but they are suppose to be hibernating. Which one is real?
In the original post, I related an observation of a mohave crossing my driveway, at night, in mid-october. That is fact. No arguement can change that. No pigion holeing can help understand it.
As a researcher, I have two options, one is to test it. The other is to deny it. The only way to test it is, to repeat the observation. This was done hundreds of times. We have tons of records that say they(snakes) are active in the winter. (active= up and about achieving lifes processes)
Over the years, our task was to try and understand what the meaning of winter active individuals is/was. This became clear. Again, our study site is at 6000 ft. So your elevation arguement is out the door.
Then over decades, observations of all sorts of species were made here and there by all sorts of herpers, both academics and hobbyists. Whats funny is, academics deny what was observed, because like you, it conflicts with what you think you know. But that did not stop it from happening. Observations of snakes(mohaves) active in winter will continue to be made, no matter what Gordons/Holycross's paper said.
The point here is, these discussions are not about the snakes, they are about your ability to learn. You must first clear that up before you attempt to understand the snakes. There have been lots of notes on snakes found in winter. You seem to want to judge them and squish them into what you already understand. Which cannot work, the reason is, what you already understand does not include snakes being active in the winter. This is the whole point in a nutshell. The battle is you, not the snakes or me. So you lashing out at how I write, or disecting the whole post in some meaningless(doing that renders the post meaningless) fashion are indeed all about you. Not about me or the snakes. No matter what I say, people will keep finding snakes in the winter and people like you will keep denying those obsevations and say, oh you made a mistake, because my book says. Problem is, the snakes are the subject, the books(literature) are (weak) attempts to discribe the subject. Thanks and learn to learn, FR
you DA'man,,,,,,,,,thomas davis
Hate to let you think everybody thinks you are special. Seriously though why not give the data so people can see what you are seeing as a whole and not a slice. Understand that Terry is speaking from the point of view of someone in a region that herps do shut down around him because there are no areas of proper habitat to let them be active. The data will help him see the windows that these herps are living in in AZ and elsewhere.
