Little Big Snake Download

This is perhaps the oddest of the little flower bed snakes. A worm snake has smooth, shiny scales, reduced eyes, and a small pointed head that allows it to burrow rapidly through loose soil hunting for earthworms. They are really very pretty little animals, with glossy scales, dark chocolate brown back, and pinkish belly, brighter in some specimens than others. Worm snakes are hardly larger than a big earthworm, and unsuspecting gardeners might actually mistake one for a worm. In fact, they can burrow and disappear so rapidly that unless you are paying attention, you could dig them up all day and not notice them. To catch one, I usually grab a handful of the soil or mulch that the snake has disappeared into, and then sift it between my fingers to see if I was successful.

Smooth earth snakes are about the same size as worm snakes and have very similar habits, but they not appear to be as specialized for burrowing. Their eyes are larger than those of worm snakes, and they look more like typical little snakes. Their glossy bodies can be either dark gray or pale gray with dark spots.

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Brown snakes lurk in loose mulch but do not seem to burrow in soil. Like worm snakes and earth snakes, they are inoffensive and never attempt to bite. One year, the kids and I kept a brown snake for several weeks and fed it slugs, which it consumed enthusiastically. Clearly, this is a useful snake to have around the garden.

Depending on where in the piedmont you live, you may also find several other small snakes in your flower beds. Rough earth snakes (Virginia striatula) are reported to be common in some vacant lots in Durham and Raleigh, and I have seen a southeastern crowned snake (Tantilla coronata) that was caught in a Durham city park. If your garden is adjacent to a creek or moist woodland, you may find a redbelly snake (Storeria occipitomaculata), which resembles a brown snake with a bright orange belly, or perhaps a ringneck snake (Diadophis punctatus), surely one of the prettiest North Carolina snakes. Keep your eyes open.

Thanks, John. I hope to have part 2 posted in a couple of days. We also have a legless lizard in North Carolina, the glass lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis), but they live on the coastal plain, not in my part of the state. Our local grass snake equivalent, the eastern garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) does visit the garden, but they prefer a nearby stream where they can catch frogs and salamanders.

Biologist Bruce Jayne at the University of Cincinnati discovered that the Gans' egg-eater, or Dasypeltis gansi, can consume bigger prey relative to its own length and mass than even Burmese pythons, among the most massive snakes on Earth.

The egg-eater consumes the egg whole and contorts its spine to crack it, releasing the gooey contents, before regurgitating the empty, broken shell. Rat snakes, by contrast, typically digest the egg, shell and all.

Burmese pythons are no slouches when it comes to eating big meals. In previous studies, Jayne found that adult pythons can consume deer weighing more than 70 pounds and alligators 100 pounds or more. Still, the little egg eater can consume prey with a cross-sectional area more than twice that of a Burmese python of similar weight.

Hulking hunters like Burmese pythons may be famous for scarfing up deer, alligators and other enormous prey (SN: 11/25/15). But one unassuming little African snake may take the title for most outsized meals. The nonvenomous, nearly toothless Dasypeltis gansi can open its mouth wider than any other snake of its size, biologist Bruce Jayne reports August 8 in the Journal of Zoology.

B.C. Jayne. Scaling relationships of maximal gape and prey size of snakes for an egg-eating specialist (Dasypeltis gansi) and a dietary generalist (Pantherophis obsoletus). Journal of Zoology. Published online August 8, 2023. doi: 10.1111/jzo.13102.

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Most adult Ring-necked Snakes in Florida are about 8-14 inches (21-36 cm) in total length. Adults are small and slender with a black or slate gray body and a yellow, cream, or orange ring across the neck. The neck ring may be incomplete, and snakes in the Lower Florida Keys may lack a ring entirely. The belly is bright yellow, orange, or red with a single row of black half-moon markings down the center. The underside of the tail is typically bright red in the peninsula or yellow in the Panhandle. The scales are smooth, and there are 15 dorsal scale rows at midbody. The pupil is round. Juvenile coloration is similar to that described for adults.

These mild-mannered snakes typically do not bite in defense. If captured or molested, Ring-necked Snakes will often squirm vigorously and release foul-smelling musk from two glands in the base of the tail. If further molested, they will often roll their tail into a tight coil and elevate it to display the bright red or yellow coloration beneath, potentially as a startle display.

Ring-necked Snakes are nocturnal (active at night) predators and feed primarily on small lizards, snakes, salamanders, frogs, toads, earthworms, slugs, and insects. These snakes are not constrictors. Larger prey are slowly immobilized using a mildly toxic venom that is delivered by two slightly elongated teeth at the rear of the mouth. However, smaller prey are often quickly swallowed alive.

Ring-necked Snakes can be locally abundant in parts of their range, including in residential areas. However, these small and secretive snakes are rarely seen unless they are disturbed from their hiding places during yardwork or heavy rains. Otherwise, they are typically found by actively searching for them under rocks, logs, or other surface cover.

In November, a juvenile Common Garter Snake presented to the Wildlife Medical Clinic. The little snake, just 30 grams or around 1 ounce, was found in a basement! It is not uncommon for reptiles to find shelter in residential homes during the winter months, but this choice is not always supported by the human inhabitants.

With the confirmation of SFD, the patient began a long course of antifungal therapy. Medicating reptiles can often pose a challenge due to potential danger to the handler (not the case with this small, non-venomous species) and stress or stubbornness of the patient. Luckily, the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab developed a highly efficacious method to treat snakes with Ophidiomyces using nebulization therapy. This patient underwent daily 30-minute nebulization treatments for the first month of care. A recheck skin swab was then tested to see if therapy was working. Thankfully, this test showed that the snake was now negative for the disease.

Three negative skin swabs are necessary to deem a snake free from fungal disease. This patient has already almost doubled in size while in clinic, so hopefully he/she will continue to grow and remain disease free through the next rechecks. As reptiles cannot be released during the winter time in temperate climates, this patient will be at the Wildlife Medical Clinic until the weather warms up!

The prairie ring-necked snake is a small, dark snake with a yellow or orange ring around the neck that is one or two scale rows wide and usually has a hind edge of black. The upperside (dorsal) color is normally shiny dark gray but may be gray brown. The top of the head is usually darker than the body. The belly is yellow with numerous irregularly placed, small black spots; the belly changes to a bright orange or red along the underside of the tail. The body scales are smooth; the anal plate (last belly scale, which covers the anal opening) is divided.

When first uncovered, a specimen may tightly coil its tail and expose its brightly colored underside to draw attention away from its head. This small snake is not known to bite a person, but when first handled and alarmed, it will discharge a pungent, unpleasant musk mixed with fecal matter.

Similar species: In all, ring-necked snakes of the Diadophis punctatus lineage contain 12 subspecies or geographic races. The prairie ring-necked snake, described above, is the most common and widespread of Missouri's two subspecies. The Mississippi ring-necked snake (D. punctatus stictogenys) is the subspecies found in southeastern Missouri. It is slightly smaller, its yellow neck ring may be narrower or interrupted (broken) on the back, it has a yellow belly, and the small black belly spots are usually in 2 or 3 lengthwise rows. Where the ranges of our two subspecies overlap (in a two-county-wide, northeast-to-southwest line from Perry and Cape Girardeau counties to Carter and Ripley counties), there is a potential area of intergradation between the two races, and individuals in that zone may show characteristics of both subspecies.

Nearly statewide. The Mississippi ring-necked snake subspecies replaces the prairie subspecies in the Bootheel. There is a potential zone of intergradation between the two races just northwest of the Bootheel.

In some locations in Missouri, this is the most common snake species. Ring-necked snakes occur in a variety of habitats: native prairies, pastures, open woods, along the edges of woodlands, and on dry, rocky glades. They can be found in towns and small cities with empty lots and unkept yards that are littered with rocks, slabs of old concrete, old tin, or boards that can be used by snakes as hiding places.

Prairie ring-necked snakes breed soon after they emerge from overwintering in late March or early April, and possibly also in autumn. Breeding in Missouri has been observed in early May. Most adult females reproduce annually, and more than one clutch may be laid per season. 2351a5e196