Observed Use of High Temp Areas

Originally Posted by captainjack0000

The question posed was: Would a snake in the wild voluntarily use surface temps 100F+?

Yes, I've seen it often. I literally just used a temp gun to check the temperature of a corn's hot spot and it read 102-an adult male corn is sitting on it right now. That's not in the wild, but I'll address that below...

Originally Posted by captainjack0000

So yeah a snake may encounter 100F+ temps in the wild, just as it might encounter a hawk or a hiker, but is it going to use them? Do we have any evidence that it is using the 100F+ temperatures? I have yet to find any.

Have you ever seen a snake basking on pavement in the heat of the summer? I'd imagine many of us have. Have you ever measured the surface temperature of black pavement in the sun? It gets well over 100 degrees. They may not use it for very long, but they do frequently make use of surface temperatures over 100 for thermoregulation (and not necessarily all at once-for example, rat snakes in hiding will expose loops of their body to a heat source rather than revealing themselves completely in some circumstances). Your latest posts reference internal temperature, but that's a whole different ball of wax.

If I've understood correctly, you're asking about snakes in the wild to equate their preferences with snakes in captivity. To go right to the source, I can definitely vouch for corns using heat sources over 100 degrees because I provide them for mine and they use them each time they have a meal. I would argue that denying them surface temperatures of 100 or more is unnatural. I often hear people talk about hot spots with surface temperatures in the 90s for colubrids. The surface of my exposed forearm in a cool room is measuring 89 according to my infrared thermometer right now. Does that mean the warmth of my body is enough to allow a corn to heat up all it would ever want to?

I'm not saying they can't digest meals without access to 100 degree plus sites, but they sure don't avoid them when they're looking to heat up either.

Your latest posts reference internal temperature

My last post in this thread (not counting this one) had a document that gave the body temperatures and the temps of the surface on which the animal was located (as well as a few other temperatures if memory serves me correctly).

Nope, second to last post. The Cooking Reptiles post.

Where is the great self-proclaimed snake whisperer expert Frank Retes when you don't need him?..HAHAHA!!!

Glad he AIN'T over here. But if he was, he wouldn't last but possibly one or two posts at the most before he was permanently banned.



~Doug