This is a subject I threw out once before but thought it might be fun to re-hash it, blood temperature and its relationship to blood pathogens. Seems to me that when we are sick we run a fever. In the wild a prairie rattlesnake for instance can bask until it is 130F or come out of a burrow at 33F yes 33F, we documented prairie rattlesnakes coming out at 33F Bob Clark and Steve Sherrod a scientist from Sutton Avian Research were there to document this behavior! If it is 55F underground then why would they be coming out at 33F? Are they killing harmful pathogens in their blood stream? Why not? What other reason would they have for this behavior? In captivity our captives do not have access to these extremes and that in my opinion is why the wild captives usually fade away after a few years.
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Twisted thoughts from a twisted brain.
Replies (10)
It was nice out today in Kansas.
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"I got out of the business because it's almost impossible to do business without breaking a law some place, whether you knowingly do it or not."
Tom Crutchfield
San Diego: Yesterdays temp: 85f
I know.....I am just plain wrong.
Fred
Yes in Kansas it is not 85F if it above freezing this time of year we are good to go.
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i've seen a similar thing in Oregon, only it was Charina, not Lichanura.
matt
I have herd storys of Charina burrowing into snow banks!
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I can believe that, i've heard that lot's of breeders keep them in refrigerators.
Eric
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way back in my youth i herped the Willamette Valley and Columbia River Gorge of Oregon and Washington extensively. up near Sandy, OR you can see Charina in early spring. snow everywhere, except on rocks and on the roads, and we'd see them out in the sunny spots. if you messed with them, they would head back to the sides of the roads, or back under the rocks, and into the snow! of course, when you dug into the snow for them, they were deep below the substrate.
they were often the first snakes up from hibernation (along with Thamnophis). Crotalus, Diadophis, Contia, Pituophis, Lampropeltis, and Coluber came up later, and roughly in that order.
ahh, the simpler times...
matt
I have found a few here in the Sierra Foothills. I have one that I kept and he was found at an elev. of 3,500 ft. He was cruising across the road at 10PM on a chilly late Septmeber night, temps were right about 50 degrees , maybe lower. Very cool snakes.
Nice animal awsome pic.
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