Yesterday's post about the mysterious lack of California Ground Squirrels this year may be explained by the next door neighbor's sighting of a five foot long snake in her back yard yesterday afternoon.
We didn't see the snake, but I'm guessing it's a California Gopher Snake, Pituophis catenifer annectens. They range in length from 2.5 to 7 feet in length, but are usually about 4 or 5 feet long. They eat small mammals, especially pocket gophers, but also eat birds and their eggs, lizards and insects.
The Gopher Snake tends to react defensively when disturbed by hissing, rearing back and striking. It also makes a buzzing sound by shaking its tail, emulating the sound a rattlesnake makes. This behavior may make some predators back off and leave the snake alone, but it also results in humans killing Gopher Snakes unnecessarily.
Far from fearing these snakes, some dedicated gardeners even try to buy them to protect their gardens from the depredations of gophers and ground squirrels.
We're guessing from the recent absence of ground squirrels that the snake has already been in our yard, but it's welcome back anytime.
No comments:
Post a Comment