Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just pondering the climite change & how much it is effecting the activity of snakes, lets narrow it to hog's. I can remember winters when the first snow fell in October & would stay on the ground for weeks, often we would get 3 to 4 ft of build up which would stay until February. Today that same area only had a total of 11 inches. I was wondering if you had found any data to compare with what you have been seeing in your field studies?

Probably not a really fair question since not a lot of serious research was done that far back. That would have been between 1950 & 1960.

The question is for FR. (telephone interrupted)

Sorry, I have not been working hogs seriously long enough and they are very fossorial. Normally here, the adults stop surfacing in Mid oct. for the most part, neonates may stay active all winter if the lizard population is strong. The adults rarely surface again until they around the time they lay eggs.

Also I believe the reason they avoid the surface is more about moisture then temps. As the soils they use are draining soils, the surface drys out very very quickly. Even other colubrids avoid surface activity for long periods of time normally.
So time will tell if the laying times change.
I can say with a high degree of accuracy that other species, diamonbacks and gilas, are almost two months ahead of normal. I observed and filmed and photographed copulation in late Jan. throughout march, and it normally start in middle march. Simply put, we did not have a winter. Many of my outdoor cages were open all but a few nights this winter. Some winters they are closed and heated for three months strait.
http://youtu.be/Nmt65r1R8C0

Please copy and paste that vid you will like it. I put it in the area for Utube vids and nothing happened. Got me.

It came up "private video".

Sorry, fix it in the mourning.

As you can see the male is hypo. Of the many animals in this area I observe there are 3 hypos
http://youtu.be/Nmt65r1R8C0

great video thanks