Small Snakes!

Small snakes! Boy, are they cool! I must say, a lot of my friends growing up that were into reptiles with me were not very interested in these little guys. Except one; my friend Eric Guidry. He turned me on to the small snakes by showing me pictures of ring-necked snakes (seen in picture above). I have to say, in all my years looking for amphibians and reptiles, I have only come across three of these beautiful little gems. The first time was in Pass Christian, MS at a relative of Eric's out in the country. That was 1991. It was a long time until I saw my second, which was a solo discovery in Mandeville, LA in a small woodlot near one of my uncle Scott Boudreaux's previous residences. I walked into the woodlot and immediately saw lots of boards and siding laying around. "Alright!" I thought to myself, "this place ought to be crawling with stuff" (no pun intended). The first piece of cover I flipped was an old sign, and lo and behold; there was a 3" ring-necked snake! What a beauty!!! I was so pleased with this find, that I decided to hold onto it and show it off to some friends. Oh...and for those who are wondering, I also turned up a pregnant* Eastern garter snake and several ground and five-lined skinks. *You will notice I used the term "pregnant" here because snakes of the genus Thamnophis (garter, ribbon snakes) are vivaporous, or give birth to live young. Snakes that lay eggs are referred to as oviporous, and when they are carrying eggs, are referred to as "gravid".

Anyway....that second ring-necked snake was around 1999 or so. Another dry spell passed until I found my third. That was, until the beginning of March this year. Susan Walls, Samantha Hill and I were out in the Basin surveying some of our amphibian study sites in Whiskey Bay. After determining a location to set out one of our "frogloggers" (a digital recording device), we flipped a single piece of tin, and there was a ring-necked snake! (Actually, the very one in the picture) We were psyched! We took a few pictures, and then turned the little fellow/gal free.

I've been rambling on so much about ring-necks that I almost forgot to mention some of the other small snakes we have here. One day recently while out in the yard, Ellen called to me saying, "James, there's a snake over here!". The only other snake we've had in our yard was a speckled kingsnake a few years back, so naturally that was the first thing to come to mind. However, when I got over to where she was standing, there was this small (ca. 3.5") snake in the grass. It turned out to be a red-bellied snake! My first one ever! (at right)

The very next day, I was at my friend James Reitter's house and we were flipping some rocks in the coulee behind his complex. After a bit of searching, I found a brown snake (below). This little guy was about 6" long. Most of the small snakes we have here feed on worms and small arthropods. The average adult lengths of the three small snake species I've mentioned here are as follows:

ring-necked snake Diadophis punctatus 30"
red-bellied snake Storeria occipitomaculata 16"
brown snake Storeria dekayi 20 3/4"

So, in closing, when out flipping cover looking for that "fantastic find", don't forget to look for these sometimes hard-to-find little guys of the serpent world. I think you'll be amazed how beautiful something so small can be.

James