>>One explanation to this problem - that no none has ever seen a predator avoid a milksnake although it carries colors that should warn predators off - maybe lays inside the first explanation, that there no longer are any coral snakes in the wast majority of the milksnake species total range. If there where coral snakes still in those areas, I'm sure that predators would think twice before attacking a milksnake.>>

The milk snake ranges all the way down to South America. There is no shortage of coral snakes within the entire range of the milk snake. If there is no fear of the tricolor pattern and if the tricolor pattern is conspicuous, then the tricolor pattern would have been eliminated by predators. On South Todos Santos Island, that is exactly what has happened. The tricolored L. zonata found there has no red in its pattern, almost certainly because a tricolored snake, active diurnally on a desert island, would be quickly caught and eaten by avian predators. L. z. herrerae shows that the tricolored pattern is conspicuous in open habitats, and it shows that there is no fear of the tricolored pattern by predators. The tricolor pattern has not been eliminated in other locales probably because these snakes are actually cryptic in those localities (with woodland and forest habitats) or because the snakes are nocturnal in habits.

[ Show Entire Thread ]