Monday: 25 July 2005
A few weeks ago I posted about finding a clutch of snake eggs in a pile of wood chips. One of those eggs accidently made it down with us and I placed it in a thin foam rubber cooler in the middle of a foot or so of wood chips.
Today it hatched - baby snake hissing at me, and diving back down into the chips. He’s a lovely gray and brown patterned thing about a foot long and apparently able to take care of himself, striking at me a couple of times before disappearing. I’ll try to get some pics before letting him go.
UPDATE: And here are the pics. The little bugger sticks his tail down and vibrates it loudly when I upset him. I realize that baby snakes may change coloration as they mature, but still... any ideas? (I’m going to guess rat snake.)
UPDATE 2: Swampy does it again. Baby Black Racer. Pic found here. Could life get any better?
And finally, UPDATE 3, 0726 EDT Jul 26: We let him go this morning. I was foolish to imagine any concerns about his ability to bite, although he went to all sorts of effort to convince me otherwise. One he had a few lunges in, he was quite comfortable being handled. Then I put him down and he got all wild again. But he’ll be content in the fairy ring, now freed of microstegium and likely to produce a good crop of grasses in a few weeks.
So what have I learned? I was worried about carbon dioxide buildup, and humidity and heat, either the lack or the excess, in that little container. I imagined fungus, bacteria, and endogenous insects devouring that little egg. I’m sure the conditions weren’t perfect, and nonetheless in the end it didn’t matter; even three weeks after setting up the incubator, everything turned out ok.
Today it hatched - baby snake hissing at me, and diving back down into the chips. He’s a lovely gray and brown patterned thing about a foot long and apparently able to take care of himself, striking at me a couple of times before disappearing. I’ll try to get some pics before letting him go.
UPDATE: And here are the pics. The little bugger sticks his tail down and vibrates it loudly when I upset him. I realize that baby snakes may change coloration as they mature, but still... any ideas? (I’m going to guess rat snake.)
UPDATE 2: Swampy does it again. Baby Black Racer. Pic found here. Could life get any better?
And finally, UPDATE 3, 0726 EDT Jul 26: We let him go this morning. I was foolish to imagine any concerns about his ability to bite, although he went to all sorts of effort to convince me otherwise. One he had a few lunges in, he was quite comfortable being handled. Then I put him down and he got all wild again. But he’ll be content in the fairy ring, now freed of microstegium and likely to produce a good crop of grasses in a few weeks.
So what have I learned? I was worried about carbon dioxide buildup, and humidity and heat, either the lack or the excess, in that little container. I imagined fungus, bacteria, and endogenous insects devouring that little egg. I’m sure the conditions weren’t perfect, and nonetheless in the end it didn’t matter; even three weeks after setting up the incubator, everything turned out ok.
