Creepy critter Halloween
Happy Halloween from these scary critters! A Halloween Snake (Oxyrhopus petola), Common Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus), Central American Bark Scorpion (Centruroides margaritatus) and Tarantula, all taken by Twan for the Meet Your Neighbours global diversity project.
Read MoreDeKay’s Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi)
With last week’s warm temperatures and sunny days, many critters took advantage of the ideal autumn conditions and were out hunting or in search of their soon to be used winter hideaways. This seemed to be the case for a little DeKay’s Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi) that was found slithering across a forest road in the Finger Lakes National Forest by my husband and me. The little snake was soaking up the sun and was moving towards the leaf litter of the nearby forest floor, a place they often seek prey and hide in. As the snake was making its journey we took a few snapshots…...
Read MoreFrightened snakes
Here’s Twan photographing one of the Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) we recorded during survey work this September. In this particular case we have a young male on the hunt for prey. It did not move from this position and it hoped that we would never notice it (and the snake is a heck of a lot easier to see when you know it’s there than when searching in the field!) I initially spotted it from where we were standing in the photo. It felt comfortable enough to simply remain still and rely on its natural camouflage which works phenomenally. However, other rattlesnakes that...
Read MoreTimber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) leaving den
For a final Timber Rattlesnake post here’s the third “teenage” individual that we saw, coming upon this one leaving its den. It decided to go back home once it found ferocious humans. I find it endlessly engrossing that some of the wisest early Americans used the rattlesnake as a unique symbol for the burgeoning nation – “a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America” as Benjamin Franklin said. In his infamous “Join, or Die” political cartoon, created during the French and Indian War, Franklin depicted a rattlesnake in eight pieces...
Read MoreTimber Rattlesnake near den
After a lot of feedback let’s keep talking about Timber Rattlesnakes today. In the Northeast, Timber Rattlesnakes are extirpated in ME and RI and down to – at best – a handful of populations in NH, VT, MA and CT. They have a severely reduced range in NY. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a grand total of about five people die per year from any venomous snake bite in all of America. The vast majority of those bitten have been harassing or aggressively attacking the snake without cause. Like nearly any other wild creature if you leave it alone it...
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