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The Cultivars (morphs)/Genetics Issues Discussions about genetics issues and/or the various cultivars for cornsnakes commercially available.

Lavender corn writeup from SerpenCo.com
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Old 05-26-2018, 07:46 PM   #11
Rich Z
Speaking of large rattlesnakes....

Years ago when Connie and I were kicking around in that Murdock area looking for snakes, I spotted some sheet tin a bit off of the road, further back in those abandoned mazes of roads, so we parked the Bronco and I grabbed my Furmont Stump Ripper and headed over there while Connie decided to sit this one out and remain in the truck.

Where I was headed was only a few moment trek from the Bronco, so when I got there I lifted up a good sized piece of tin and ducked down to quickly take a peek underneath. And found myself face to face with a monster of a diamondback. Yikes! I certainly was not expected that! But he (just guessing at the sex) didn't seem particularly offended, and from the way he had coiled up underneath the tin, it seemed apparent to me that it would have been a real acrobatic move on his part to land a strike in my direction . So I carefully lowered the tin again and ran back to the Bronco to grab my camera. I asked Connie if she would help me get some pictures of a rattlesnake I found, since it would be easier if she held up the tin from the back while I took the photographs from the front.

So she gets on the opposite side of the tin and using my snake hook, lifted up the tin while I moved in for some photographs. Honestly I got pretty close to that rattlesnake, but Connie couldn't see a thing of it from her angle holding up the tin. When I got done taking the photos, I asked her if she wanted to see the snake. Sure she did. So we traded places, and when she was in front of the tin, I then lifted it up so the rattlesnake would be exposed. All I saw was Connie doing an olympic quality leap backwards while calling out some sort of unflatteringly descriptive names and curses.

Come to find out that because she couldn't see the animal, and from as close as I appeared to be getting to it while taking the photos, she just assumed that it was just a little tiny rattlesnake under that tin. So when I lifted that tin, she found herself facing one heck of a jumbo sized monster. She obviously did not notice that it would have been rather difficult for this guy to launch a strike, but then again, she obviously was in no mood to analyze that situation for long. Now this WAS an exceptionally large rattlesnake, and as I mentioned I was pretty surprised myself. If I had laid it's head on my open hand, you wouldn't have been able to see much of my hand and fingers. I have no idea how long it was, but it was certainly one very chunky looking animal. And Connie was just in her sandals, so I'm sure she felt that her feet and toes were extremely exposed, which certainly helped her to execute that 10 point leap backwards. Yeah, I guess in the excitement of finding that magnificent animal, it just slipped my mind to warn her of exactly what she was going to see when I lifted that tin up.

Of course, it took a VERY LONG while before I heard the end of that from her......... Come to think of it, it was a very long time before she even started speaking to me again.
 
Old 05-26-2018, 10:25 PM   #12
Twolunger
You really have to be careful around here because the rattlesnakes don't have large rattles. I have found two that were hit by cars that barely had any rattles, and what they did have were black looking scales that made no sound. Last week one was killed just a block from my son's house, and although the snake was 5 feet long with quite a girth, it only had a few rattles. One was run over by a car just 100 feet from my driveway, and it had no rattles at all. It had well developed fangs though.

It's funny, I have found old signs that blew down, pieces of tin roofs, old carpets, all the debris one would expect to serve as a good hiding place for snakes, but I've never found anything under them. I guess there's just too much leaf litter proving good protection.
 
Old 05-26-2018, 10:30 PM   #13
Twolunger
Quote:
Originally Posted by bushsnake View Post
I just had one from Marco Island that fit that discription
I've never gone to Marco, or I should say not recently. Did you see that snake on the road?
 
Old 05-27-2018, 04:07 AM   #14
Rich Z
Marco Island? Good heavens! I'm surprised that any native animals, much less snakes can still be found there. Every time I think about going there, I just look at a satellite image and change my mind....
 
Old 05-27-2018, 09:31 AM   #15
Twolunger
There certainly aren't vast tracts available to the snakes on Marco, but apparently some do survive there. What's even more curious, to me anyway, is how snakes can survive in the middle Keys. Over the years hurricanes have hit or passed close by and the ocean surge swept the Keys with deep salt water. On two occasions, or more, the water was two or three feet deep covering a whole Key, and sweeping everything not nailed down into the Gulf. And yet snakes, including corns and Pygmy rattlers, are commonly found there.
 
Old 05-27-2018, 05:05 PM   #16
Rich Z
Quote:
Originally Posted by Twolunger View Post
You really have to be careful around here because the rattlesnakes don't have large rattles. I have found two that were hit by cars that barely had any rattles, and what they did have were black looking scales that made no sound. Last week one was killed just a block from my son's house, and although the snake was 5 feet long with quite a girth, it only had a few rattles. One was run over by a car just 100 feet from my driveway, and it had no rattles at all. It had well developed fangs though.
Probably a form of evolution in progress. The sound of the rattles probably worked well to keep large animals from stepping on rattlesnakes in the past and those survivors passed their genes that emphasize making more noise onto the next generation. But now, things have changed. The rattle gives away the location of the snake, more likely than not to someone with a shovel or a shotgun who will dispatch the rattlesnake. So the quieter the snake is, the less likely it will be detected, and therefore pass off it's genes tending towards being relatively more quiet to the next generation.

At least that is the way that evolution is supposed to work.

I wonder how many invisible snakes there are out there?
 
Old 05-27-2018, 05:52 PM   #17
Shiari
Rich, that's been happening around places with large rattlesnake round ups as well! A noisy snake gets removed from the breeding population so snakes that are quieter are all that's left.
Yay unintentional artificial selection?
 
Old 05-27-2018, 06:40 PM   #18
Twolunger
I have read articles that mention that wild hogs alerted to a rattlesnake's presence will kill and eat them. The theory is that the snakes that survived because they failed to make the loud rattling warning sound have reproduced with little or no rattle development. Sounds like the evolution theory has a lot of merit. I've read articles that stated that hogs love to eat rattlesnakes, and then another article states they will avoid them. I know I am avoiding them.
 
Old 05-27-2018, 11:26 PM   #19
Rich Z
And yet people have embarked on trying to produce things like seedless grapes and seedless watermelons. Seems to me that would have been a frustrating and futile goal.
 

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