Olm said...
"Eko, have you ever seen a rubber boa constrictor in the Willow Creek area - or anywhere else in Humboldt Co, for that matter?"
Ernie said...
I've only seen one, and that belonged to a park ranger that lived at Richardsons Grove. He said that it was a local snake, but I've not ever seen one in the wild. I think that maybe they might live around here, because I have read that they do. How about it Eko, have you ever seen one?
Now For The Shock. Read about the cute little Rinknecks below!
These cute little snakes grow in great abundance in my front yard. They are called "Ringneck Snakes". They are called Ringneck snakes because they have a orange/yellow ring around their necks. When you find them, and put them out in the open, they curl their tail in a cute little curl, and lay on their backs so their orange belly shows. They are so cute, timid, and sweet that even an old snake hater like me warms up to them. they are real charmers!
Every now and then I catch one, and keep in in a dry aquarium. I put worms and crickets in with it and they disappear, but I’ve never seen one eat. After I get tired of watching it I turn it loose again.
Now here is the catch! The sneaky little bastards are deadly poison.
Who knew? Did you? I'll bet that you thought, like me, that the Rattlesnake was the only poison snake in the Pacific North-West.
They are such gentle little snakes that reasearchers just assumed that they weren't poison. They don't even seem to try to bite unless they are feeding.
Click on this link to learn more!
Are Ringneck Snakes Poisonous?
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12 comments:
Yikes, I've never seen them before and now I have to worry about them!
Holy crap! I have seen these!
I have also found a couple of rubber boas on the Navarro Ridge over the decades. Please don't tell me those are venomous too.
Ditto what Kym said. Huh. I don't remember even seeing one of those.
It just goes to show you, Never trust a snake!
The rubber Boa is listed as NON-poisonous.
The first Ringneck that I remember seeing alive was in my yard in Benbow, but I have seen them in the road after having been run over.
I often see things that nobody else sees. (REAL things, thank-you)
I guess that I was born with too much curiosity. My wife gets tired of me pointing things out to her. Maybe I spend too much time spent in wonder, but I seldom get bored.
Rubber Boas are found in the southern Sierra Nevedas, and I was told that there were very rare because they are hard to find.
Well, on a work detail at the camp I was working out in the Sierras, I moved a small log, and there was a baby (small) Rubber Boa wiggling around in the soil.
We checked him out for a few moments, and left him to go on his way. It was a rare thing to find one, and I am glad it was me that found him.
-boy
I bet that Robin is totally creeped out and hiding in a corner by now!
I see rubber boas a couple of times a year. I live in Salmon Creek. Just saw one the other day. I don't think they're that rare.
Thank you, Ernie; wasn't aware that Ringnecks are venomous, nor that they'd eat kingsnakes. As the KingPin Reptiles site you'd linked to points out, kingsnakes will eat rattlers; here's a short vid, posted to YouTube, of a kingsnake beginning to engulf a small rattler.
Rubber boas aren't rare, just rarely seen: they're cryptic, and favour woodpiles: their major prey items are rodents and small lizards. They're often found under logs, ala the snake the boy most likely to discovered on the work detail. (Kudos to the boy for releasing the boa.)
Kingsnakes are gentle and can handled as easily as the ringnecks, however, please, do not fondle the rattlers! (Particularly young ones: baby rattlers have stonger neurotoxins in their venom than that of the adult snakes.)
Yes, I have seen rubber boas. Small ones. And plenty of king snakes over the years.
I also have seen Rubber (?) Boas out on the Nielsen Ranch which isn't that far fom your place, Ernie, if we were crows. I had no idea a ringneck was poisonous. They sure never told us that in Boy Scouts.
I have seen those boas over the years a few times on China Creek. Looked them up and found out they were the northermost boa constricter. Couldn't resist checking that out so the next time I saw one I picked it up to see if it would constrict around my fingers. It did. Now as to those ringnecks being poisonous. Wow. I have seen them a thousand time. They are pretty. Once when running some heavy equipment near a large rock I observed a bunch of them. Some fairly large doing some crazy stuff. I think they might have been having sex or something. One large one even made some aggressive moves at my machine, but then thought the better of it.
Here is an article on poisonous snakes from Mumbai, India. Surprising to learn that such a huge mega city has its share of snakes. Thankfully, antivenin is available locally from Haffkine Institute.
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