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Surrey Smooth snakes |
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Vicar
Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1184 |
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Posted: 09 Jul 2006 at 5:57pm |
No
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Vicar
Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1184 |
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OK...But why would they pick on the cryptic Ca in preference to VB or Nn ? MANY more Ca tails munched that other snake Spp. Confused of Farnham. |
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Vicar
Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1184 |
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Could have knocked me over with a feather yesterday, when I saw this basking openly on a heather bank after rain: It was quite docile when caught (which means it wasn't happy, but didn't bite). Unfortunately, with struggling with camera settings and GPS whilst holding the snake in one hand, I failed to notice this swelling behind its head until I looked at the photograph. Any ideas ? Viewed from another angle, its not such an obvious lump, but looks swolen overall. Sorry about limited pictures, but with the lens I had, minimum focal distance is just about the same length as my arm....so hard to get anything hand-held in focus . (I so need a 90mm macro lens!).
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arvensis
Senior Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Location: Hampshire Status: Offline Points: 493 |
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Nice find Steve! Yet to see one out in the open yet, even spent
half hour looking at a known site for La but no luck.
Anyway, back onto topic... Maybe why it was so docile and to explain for that lump is the fact it had just eaten? Or have you already discounted that as an explanation. I'm sure TP will be along shortly with an idea... Mark |
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Vicar
Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1184 |
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Mark, I dunno . It was an option that occurred to me, by looking again at the pics, the 'lump' appears to be offset onto the snake's left side a little. I remember Tony mentioning head deformalities at one site, but don't know what sort of deformation. One thing that did immediately strike me, was how pink the eye was compared to the specimens at Hankley (only a couple of miles away). Again, I'm clueless as to whether this is within normal variations or a heredited characteristic. |
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Vicar
Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1184 |
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Tony, I think it was an old male, very large snake with mottled ventrals and a distinct penial swelling. I let it go after logging position and taking the snaps, as the swelling wasn't very noticeable until I saw the images. I did think the overall girth of the snake was a little on the large side. No oral examination, but on the bottom image there maybe scarring adjacent to the lump, adding credence to your hypothesis. Cheers |
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arvensis
Senior Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Location: Hampshire Status: Offline Points: 493 |
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Tony,
Well I wouldn't notice a basking Ca(or any other reptile) even if I was virtually treading on it! Seriously, on my site in East Hampshire I don't think that Ca are there in abundant numbers but I could be wrong - it is a fairly big site and I haven't explored all of it yet. You've had many more years experience than I so in time, I'm sure I'll notice things that I wouldn't have before. I had a female Af underneath a piece of plywood at work yesterday during a brief look yesterday. As for the lino tiles, I don't have tiles as such, but if I get hold of some lino and cut it up to a suitable size(say 2ft x 2ft) then I'm willing to give it a go. Mark |
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Vicar
Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1184 |
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They're out !
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*SNAKE*
Senior Member Joined: 16 May 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 226 |
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nice one steve
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PAUL SMITH
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herpetologic2
Forum Coordinator Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1511 |
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Great I think I may pop up to Lightwater Country Park considering the high density of smoothies up there should be a dead cert - I will post the head photos for comparison with your photos TP & GS Regards
JC |
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