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ALmom
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| Posted: April 27 2006 at 11:16pm | IP Logged
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My dc discovered a black racer in our front yard and were very excited to show me - it seemed a bit odd that it was still sunning in our front yard near the mailbox at noon and that it didn't move when we came to observe. I had the 3 yo and felt sure that the clomp, clomping would certainly send it hiding.
Well when we got close enough to touch it - and it still hadn't budged, we noticed that there was a long red string trailing from about 1/4 way up from the tip of the tail. This red trailing part had a yellow egg shaped thing attached. We surmised that its guts were hanging out - but it didn't appear to be smashed in any way like someone had beat it or anything. We, of course, concluded by this point that the poor critter was dead - but now we were curious how it died. We gently turned it over with a stick and noticed there was one small slit on its underside where the cuts began to come out.
We are still wondering how this came to be. When we found it, the center of the body was around a higher clump of weed/grass like it was clinging to this with the head stretched into the dirt and the tail trailing behind in the grass. Other than the guts trailing, it looked in perfect shape from the top. Does anyone have any ideas how our black racer died?
We haven't mowed in 2 weeks (we are horrible in the upkeep of the yard department). It looks in too good a shape for it to have been attacked by a dog or beaten by some frightened person who cannot tell a racer from a copperhead. We threw out that maybe a hawk was beginning to grab it for lunch, when something like our dd taking our German Shepherd out for a walk scared the hawk off - but left the cut in the snakes underside. Mind you, we never saw a hawk and really don't know. Nor do I have a clue what a hawks talons would do or what marks it might leave on its prey. It looked as if someone had taken a surgical knife and made one very small and very clean cut.
Janet
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 28 2006 at 11:14am | IP Logged
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Perhaps run over by a car, since it was near your mailbox? People can be so mean and deliberately run over snakes. 
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Theresa
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Sarah
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| Posted: April 28 2006 at 11:23am | IP Logged
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What's a black racer?  Snake? Butterfly? What?
Just curious.
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Sarah
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| Posted: April 28 2006 at 11:25am | IP Logged
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Never mind. I just read Theresa's post more carefully. 
Snake.
Do you have a photo link?
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theNetSmith
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| Posted: April 28 2006 at 5:12pm | IP Logged
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http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herpetology/FL-GUIDE/Coluber cpriapus.htm
-T
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ALmom
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| Posted: April 28 2006 at 9:53pm | IP Logged
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It could not have been run over by a car - it wasn't smooshed at all. If it had been squashed in any way, we would have surmised that some scared gardener pummeled it or that someone ran over it.
Someone else suggested that it might have crawled over something sharp like a bottle top, glass, nails, etc. But there was nothing near where it died, and I don't see how it could have slithered very far with its guts trailing. I also think it is odd, it literally looks like a surgeon simply made a tiny horizontal cut on its white underside and disemboweled it.
Other than the guts trailing our dead racer looked exactly like the photo posted here - in that good a shape! When we saw it, it still appeared to be moist and somewhat flexible so it hadn't been dead very long.
We checked it out again today and it was dry and stiff as expected - and the guts were not as bright a red. We did take a photo of the snake before burial but didn't think to photograph the slit on the underside.
A black racer is a very common, non-poisonous snake that eats mice and other snakes. They tend to be aggressive but not dangerous. These are welcome by us as we have mice in the garage - and plenty of copperheads and rattlers in the region and presumably in our woodsy backyard full of rocks.
Any ideas are welcome. I feel like a real scientist even though I stink at science. I really would love to have some reasonable ideas of how this snake died even if we never know for certain. Could a snake really get a surgical looking cut on its underside from slithering over discarded, sharp trash and it be a clean cut - not ragged.
Also what was the yellowish egglike thing - could that be the stomach - it was part of the line of red trailing stuff that we called its guts? The 3yo insists the yellow egg-shaped part was an egg.  .
Once our film is developed, I'll try to post the pic if possible. We don't own a digital camera so I'm not sure how we'd do it.
Janet
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MacBeth
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| Posted: April 28 2006 at 10:31pm | IP Logged
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A cat can scratch an animal, and the animal is likely to die over a few day due to the bacteria in a cat scratch. Is that a possibility?
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alicegunther
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| Posted: April 28 2006 at 11:06pm | IP Logged
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MacBeth wrote:
| A cat can scratch an animal, and the animal is likely to die over a few day due to the bacteria in a cat scratch. Is that a possibility? |
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That is amazing, MacBeth.
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ALmom
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| Posted: April 29 2006 at 12:14pm | IP Logged
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We don't own a cat but there tend to be plenty that wander throughout city neighborhoods and perhaps it came from across the street. It sounds like a possibility - except that the "cut" was on the underside. Would a cat scratch be a clean, horizontal cut? I'd think that if a snake tangled with a cat or dog, the damage would be seen on the top side and be more ragged.
Also the guts were one long line that also seemed undamaged, except that they were outside the body and not inside the body.
Janet
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ALmom
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| Posted: May 01 2006 at 11:04am | IP Logged
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Well, the most logical explanation we've hears so far is that it got swiped with a weed wacker and crawled/slitered away. This opened the weed wacker incision and brought the guts out. This seems consistent with the type of injury we saw so unless there is another proposal, we'll assume this was the cause of death.
Janet
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: May 01 2006 at 12:30pm | IP Logged
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Oh, yes. That sounds logical.
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: black racer's death
