Snaky Panky

Allow me to introduce you to Elaphe vulpina – the Western fox snake.  This is a valuable animal to have around your yard as they dine principally upon rodents.  If you are a gardener they are your ally.  Belonging to the family of snakes that are constrictors - upon seizing their prey they coil around it to suffocate the animal.  After which they swallow it whole.  Their lower jaw is unhinged allowing this critter to swallow a rodent or bird five times the diameter of their head. Yum!

These are nonvenomous snakes and generally avoid people.  If handled they will frequently express a skunky, foxlike scent from a musk gland near their tail.  Hence the name fox snake.  If you pick one up use both hands as constrictors can be quite strong.  Wear gloves in case you get a dose of that musky discharge.  As a general rule they won’t bite.  Remember - they’re not poisonous - just in case a feisty one gives you a nip.

 

Last Tuesday there was this...

 

 

Eastern fox snakes mate in April or May, while western fox snakes mate from April to July.  Males wrestle one another to compete for females. 

In June, July, or August, the female lays between 6 and 29 leathery eggs. The eggs measure between 1.5 and 2.0 inches long and are deposited in forest debris or beneath stumps. After about 60 days, the eggs hatch. The young are independent at birth. The lifespan of wild fox snakes is unknown, but they live 17 years in captivity.

It's not often you witness snaky panky.....