I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

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John Delgado
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I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by John Delgado »

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I made a Gopher Snake - Pituophis catenifer catenifer music video ... Do you like it?

This gopher snake was NOT touched/handled in any way during the recording of this video. It was about 85º felt like 78º and this guy was crossing a very lonely and secluded dirt road and up a small embankment to a field of grass.

Question: Does he appear to be tracking the scent of prey ??? perhaps a mate ??? - Very fascinating how he's flicking the tongue and bobbing his head moving in jerkey motion.

Thanks to the zoom capabilities of my video camera I didn't have to get anywhere inside of 4 feet from this nice gopher snake.

naherp Record# 233708

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double d
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Re: I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by double d »

Thats very interesting because ive seen corn snakes do a very similar move when they are approaching a female to mate , then when they got to her started the jerk dance and tongue flicking the back of her head and neck
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The Real Snake Man
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Re: I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by The Real Snake Man »

Was it windy? Do the vibrations mimic that of grass that might be present? One of them isn't around any grass, but snakes aren't always too sharp if you know what I mean. I've seen some weird shaking behavior in speckled racers, in one specimen that I was watching in situ, but it was much more precise and bizarre. It would hold most of its body and its head perfectly still (head and front few inches of neck somewhat elevated), and then the elevated portion of the neck would oscillate in a slithering fashion. Like I said, the head would stay in place, but the neck immediately next to it was moving back and forth. I've seen lots of racers, and I've had the opportunity to see several in situ, before they noticed me (not an easy task), but none had done that before and none have since. I'm still wondering what the point was, and why the behavior isn't more widespread at that locality (one of three or four in the US). Snakes are interesting creatures.

-Gene
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John Delgado
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Re: I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by John Delgado »

Exactly correct - both ^^^ comments

I know the males do this jerky motion when mating ... seen plenty of rattlesnake video and it's a cool thing to see

But, this fella is doing that jerky tongue flicking while just traversing and for a good distance too. I'd say he did that for a total of about 20 feet as he moved from one side of the dirt road where I found him, to the other side and up a small embankment.

Thing is too, he had not a concern for me whatsoever, I was about 4 feet from him all the while. He didn't have a care about me until after I photographed and video recorded him for about 20 minutes. Then he stationed himself in a small green bush and just stared at me - the end of (above) video.

Here is another video I made for my family on FB we play 'Eye Spy' - he is in every second of this vid, can you see him? - It's the same P. catenifer in above video - he swithed to stealth mode at the end. And again, I never touched this fine critter, didn't have to.

I thought he was a gonner when he checked the gopher holes ... but was very glad he stayed above ground.

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Kelly Mc
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Re: I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by Kelly Mc »

I think the movement is part of vision schematics.

And that the wind has less to do with it than the fact that the grass is moving in his eye line.
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Kelly Mc
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Re: I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by Kelly Mc »

I have seen my captives dart to focus visually when foraging in environments with full spectrum uva/uvb lighting, or when outside. But never in abnormal light (or whats normal to our vision)
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Kelly Mc
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Re: I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by Kelly Mc »

I find it very interesting because we forget that snakes do use their eyes - its canonized that they see poorly - but what is poorly?

What does that mean when objects and movement are perceived by an organism in a different format from our own, in image pattern, vantage point, and photoreception?
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John Delgado
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Re: I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by John Delgado »

Do the non venomous snakes have fixed open pupils?

I read an article that subterraneous snakes have fixed pupils for better night and underground vision. And the rattlesnakes have variable pupils for adjusting to either night/underground or above ground daylight.

Any merit to this?
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Kelly Mc
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Re: I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by Kelly Mc »

Snakes do not have fixed pupils. They do have limited muscle groups that control the actual movement of the eye, but some having more, like retics.
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Kelly Mc
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Re: I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by Kelly Mc »

I don't know about the underground guys and their fixed pupils. but colubrids and boids (and most other families) not fixed.
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Kelly Mc
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Re: I made a Gopher Snake Music VIDEO

Post by Kelly Mc »

I don't think its useful to correlate eyes with whether a snake is a venomous one or non venomous.

Pupils and venom got connected in a way that people have used as some kind of rough handguide for casual identification purposes - but again I think some things put a tone of special hyperbole on Venomous that cause us to focus too closely on some things and not enough on others. jmo

Also my girlfriend just got home from work a little while ago and I keep logging on and off so she doesn't think im focusing on FHF haha
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