Last week on our field trip to Houston Woods we were strolling down this creek and catching all kinds of cool critters. My favorite catch of the day was a Queen Snake (Regina septemvittata). I felt that this catch was appropriate since we had just talked about herp defenses. This queen snake used almost all of it's defenses to avoid being caught! Alex spotted it first in a fallen tree over the river. He went to make a grab, this is when it used it's first defense, it jumped into the water to escape. I was quicker than it though and snatched it out of the water. It must have been terrified because it used a second defense. This one was unexpected because it is a Queen snake, it bit me! Queen snakes rarely bite and are usually pretty docile. I can see why it's not their preferred defense; I've been bitten by a few snakes and the Queen snakes bite was like a mosquito bite in comparison. Needless to day I held on and the snake used it's third defense, it musked all over. It smelled horrible! I held on though and it calmed down a little.
The snake turned out to be a good size for a Queen snake, about a foot and a half. It was brown on top and white below with another stripe of dark brown before it's belly. Cute snake aside from it's smell. Unfortunately, these guys are pretty vulnerable to habitat disturbances. They live by waterways and generally feed off of crayfish, so their range has diminished recently.
(Posted by Madeleine Burnett)
No comments:
Post a Comment