Interesting snake behavior noted in July ...

[Pepperbelly]

Zoologist Prof. Stan Trauth from the Biological Sciences Department at Arkansas State University, was recently interviewed by Linda Moulton Howe about a phenomenon noted in the small, Arkansas town of Yellville.



Many ... an assload of copperheads were found grouping up in a guy's yard. It is, of course, far too early for when one would ordinarily expect these reptiles to den up for hibernation.

I found this very interesting. I hope you do as well. And of course, what the hell do you think about this?

http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=963&category=Environment

[LiberalFighter]

1. They are grouping before heading to Crawford

[shraby]

2. Don't know what to think, except that

I'm sure glad I don't live there.

[Kali]

3. Interesting

wonder if any other animals are exhibiting unusual behavior in the area?

[Pepperbelly]

4. I tell you one really odd thing that I have noticed in early August ...

and this usually doesn't happen until October ... but I have seen huge flocks of rally fat-assed geese V'd up and flying south. This is in Conway, Arkansas, where I work.

I don't know what, if anything, this means but it is noteworthy.

[Kali]

12. Maybe an early cold winter coming?

There was a mention of drought in the article - is it noticable? And please don't tell me you only got several feet of rain this year, I am in AZ in the middle of what they are saying is a 20 year drought and a foot is a decent years worth!

seriously, is it abnormally dry? And it was really interesting that they were congrgating around a tree. Of course they could be blindly following a delusional leader (the part about scent trail) and where have we seen higher organisms doing that?????

[Pepperbelly]

15. I am not as closely attuned to rainy cycles as I was in the past but ...

we have had plenty of rain this year. We've had a couple of heat waves but some rain every week this summer and some weeks, more than that. Maybe it's a little drying than last summer but ... not significantly.

I am thinking early winter myself. That could, of course, be wishful thinking as we swelter in the heat.

[dweller]

5. this phenomena was noted in an editorial

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=148476&mesg_id=148476

"Copperhead snakes are converging on Chuck Miller's secluded mountaintop home in Yellville, Arkansas, spooking
scientists who have never seen anything like it, but Cindy Sheehan would not be moved from her vigil."


that i posted earlier. I didn't followup, since i have a :scared: of poisonous snakes...


dp

[PDittie]

6. Just a late summer orgy

You didn't know that was how snakes copulated?

In a big mass of roiling, boiling, serpentine sexual frenzy?

[Pepperbelly]

8. serpent porn, eh?

Except that there were no adult females in the group. Males and juvenile females.

I really don't have anything more to say about that.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. What do they tend to do during intense heat?

I've seen something here this summer that I haven't seen ever in the ten years I've lived here. There was an adult coral snake lazily resting next to the porch steps. Didn't even flinch when I walked by. I have no idea why it would expose itself in this manner. Most snakes flee before I get that close.

I even conjectured that it thought it was camouflaged among the bright red and yellow low growing flowers. But, quien sabe?

Anyway, I gave it 3-4 whacks with the trench shovel and became an instant hero to my dog. She slept at my bedside for the next two nights.

Anyway, I think I saw a baby coral many years ago. It looked like a wiley long earthworm with bands. And it can dig itself in the earth, rather quickly -- assuming it was a baby coral.

[Pepperbelly]

9. coral snakes are pretty scary ...

of course, pit vipers can be problematic as well.

I spent part of a summer sharing a water hole with a water moccasin. I tended my business while Bre'r Cottonmouth tended to his. Peaceful co-existence.

[punpirate]

10. Not knowing what the average temps have been...

... in the area, this is a wild guess. If the average temperatures have been exceptionally high, and then there was a sudden cooling off period that lasted for more than few days, perhaps the snakes' internal thermostats were thrown off--perhaps they recognize changes in average temperature rather than absolute temps as a hibernation trigger. ???

[Pepperbelly]

11. No ... actually ... the summer has had a couple of heat waves but ...

none as early as this although we did have a good cool spell which means highs in the mid to upper 80s, lows in the 60s. Not really close to the October means.

But ... :shrug:

Beats me.

[Drum]

13. That's a very interesting article

I think it's an X-File for sure

[greyl]

14. Here's another link

in case anybody has a problem with earthfiles and Howe not being scientific enough.
Link

The poisonous snakes have apparently slithered up to mark their scent on one certain dead cedar tree on a farm owned by Chuck Miller, who lives off of Highway 14 south of Yellville.
"The snakes started showing up in scads the last week in July and I've been watching them go to the same tree every night," said the 35-year-old construction worker who is building his cabin about 40 yards away from the tree.
Miller's five pit bull dogs alert him almost every night when snakes are returning to the tree or moving about in the yard. "My dogs either bark at them or even kill some of them (snakes)," he said. "My dogs have all been bitten several times but they are apparently immune from the venom."
------
Trauth and Miller agree that snakes normally gather to move to hibernation sites in October, not in July and August. "We don't think it's because of the dry weather because we've got streams and a pond lower down on the mountain below the tree," said Miller. "The only reason I caught so many and placed them in a garbage can was so people would believe my story."

Why aren't there pictures of the snakes at the tree? Why did Miller capture several dozen snakes in order to prove the story?

[Pepperbelly]

16. That made me wonder, too.

But there they are.

I would probably have just taken pictures but maybe he's been watching the Crocodile Hunter.

on edit re earthfiles as being 'scientific' enough ... how does the venue affect the story? The facts are the same, it appears, no matter where one finds the story.