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Old 04-26-2023, 12:36 AM
 
Location: Green Valley, AZ
1,377 posts, read 1,817,897 times
Reputation: 2565

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL-cuDLFVu0

Timing is everything! I got up to go to another room and looked out the patio door and saw what I thought was a gopher snake and a good sized lizard in what appeared to be a standoff. Of course, I went and got my camera to capture some video. Had I not gotten up when I did, I could have missed this entire event!!! Lucky me! All this transpired in the space of an hour. Thankfully my wife kept an eye on the rattlesnake from inside the house and showed me where it was when I got back from a haircut appointment so I could get the final shot. I know some of you think I am nuts for not calling the fire dept. to come and get the snake, but our cat does not go outside, and when we do, we always closely check the patio before stepping out. Plus, read this portion of an article from https://www.learnaboutcritters.org/translocation/ "Translocation is also bad for the individuals being moved. One reason for this is that many animals display a high degree of site fidelity. Well-studied examples include North American Box Turtles and Timber Rattlesnakes. The animals become familiar with their home range and do poorly when removed from these surroundings. While calling translocation an automatic death sentence may be a bit of an overstatement, studies have shown that mortality among translocated animals may exceed seventy percent. These animals occasionally establish new home ranges at or near their introduction site, but more often they will wander indefinitely, apparently searching for the home they once knew. While transient, these animals often succumb to starvation, temperatures, road injuries, attacks by domestic animals, or other hazards. Like I said, within an hour from first seeing the snake on the patio, it had exited our yard and was on the way down in to the wash. Snakes go where there is food, and maybe initially the snake thought it could make a meal of the lizard, but the lizard saw it. Snakes are ambush predators, so if the element of surprise is lost, most likely, so is the intended prey. Anyhow, I thought you all would find this interesting as it is a part of our lives here in Green Valley in Southeastern Arizona!!!
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Old 04-27-2023, 03:50 PM
 
807 posts, read 853,320 times
Reputation: 2480
Thank you for this video and your descriptive paragraph, Bart, I learned a lot. I didn't know that relocating them can have a mortality rate over 70%. Your video also showed him on top of the large rocks behind your casita -- I didn't know they were comfortable climbing over rocks. Glad you showed that. He does blend in well with the gravel. Finally, your Patio lizard is the cutest, so calm and regal, soaking up the sun. Interesting that he's been there several years, it's definitely his home. Enjoyed your video, thank you!
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Old 04-30-2023, 05:18 PM
 
Location: Green Valley, AZ
1,377 posts, read 1,817,897 times
Reputation: 2565
Quote:
Originally Posted by wildflowers27 View Post
Thank you for this video and your descriptive paragraph, Bart, I learned a lot. I didn't know that relocating them can have a mortality rate over 70%. Your video also showed him on top of the large rocks behind your casita -- I didn't know they were comfortable climbing over rocks. Glad you showed that. He does blend in well with the gravel. Finally, your Patio lizard is the cutest, so calm and regal, soaking up the sun. Interesting that he's been there several years, it's definitely his home. Enjoyed your video, thank you!
Thanks for watching wildflowers27! I am glad that you found the video and text informative. Yes, we have enjoyed having this lizard in our back yard for so many years. I hope he has many more to come!!!
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Old 04-30-2023, 07:42 PM
 
Location: Inland California Desert
830 posts, read 756,896 times
Reputation: 1330
This reminded me of when I was a teenager & my parents had bought 5 rocky+hilly acres in the Calif. desert that they were clearing so as to put a home on it & live there. This particular day I was barefoot & in shorts with my new young dog following, & as I went to step down onto a rock-step Dad had placed there, I looked down just in time to swivel & call the dog to follow me in another direction . . . to avoid stepping squarely on the large Rattler coiled on that step! (If not for that step I never would have looked down & probably gotten bit myself!) . . . Looking around a few minutes later, I found a small lizard several feet away that the snake didn't get to eat, but appeared to have bit ... as it had at least one hole punched in it & was dead. (Unfortunately the snake wound up dead, too, as my parents dispatched all the Rattlesnakes they discovered there.)


It's 50 years since then, & I live 2 miles from my folk's previous 5 acres, & here (on what was reportedly once a hog farm in the low flats) I've seen several striped California King snakes (two years in a row I saw three babies, so I think they were nesting under our MH).... We had a large dog at that time which tried to kill one set of the babies, but they kept slipping between its teeth & got away unscathed. (:


Another year our two large dogs set up frightful barking I went to investigate only to find a very large light-apricot colored Rattler that must have recently shed its skin so that its markings were very pale & almost nonexistent. It was coiled just a few feet outside our fence, hissing at the dogs & poised in readiness to strike. I was very relieved that both dogs readily came to me when I called them, as I most certainly did NOT want to approach anywhere near that snake to get them!!! Apparently they mainly wanted to keep it out of the yard & let me know that it was there.


(It goes without saying that I'm a lot more careful about where I stem & what I wear in warm weather around here, since that first near-rattlesnake encounter I had!)



A few yrs later two Red Racer / Coach-whip snakes decided to court under our MH, & at first one climbed onto our raised porch, & then onto something else, from where it saw its reflection in the window ... & my husband looked up from his desk to see its head moving all around in the bottom window corner! (I think it was trying to find out what was making the noise from his movements inside, at first). We went out the back door & around the MH with a camera, took its picture from behind it, & then spotted its mate on the ground nearby.... I had several more sightings of large single Coach-whips for a few years (one time stalking birds by our birdbath, but it gave up & left after the birds saw it & set up an awful loud racket). Then they seemed to move on as the King-snakes previously had.


I most definitely appreciate your attitude of preserving the wildlife in your yard & locality!!!

Last edited by 2Q&Lrn&Hlp; 04-30-2023 at 08:26 PM..
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Old 04-30-2023, 09:15 PM
 
Location: Green Valley, AZ
1,377 posts, read 1,817,897 times
Reputation: 2565
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Q&Lrn&Hlp View Post
This reminded me of when I was a teenager & my parents had bought 5 rocky+hilly acres in the Calif. desert that they were clearing so as to put a home on it & live there. This particular day I was barefoot & in shorts with my new young dog following, & as I went to step down onto a rock-step Dad had placed there, I looked down just in time to swivel & call the dog to follow me in another direction . . . to avoid stepping squarely on the large Rattler coiled on that step! (If not for that step I never would have looked down & probably gotten bit myself!) . . . Looking around a few minutes later, I found a small lizard several feet away that the snake didn't get to eat, but appeared to have bit ... as it had at least one hole punched in it & was dead. (Unfortunately the snake wound up dead, too, as my parents dispatched all the Rattlesnakes they discovered there.)


It's 50 years since then, & I live 2 miles from my folk's previous 5 acres, & here (on what was reportedly once a hog farm in the low flats) I've seen several striped California King snakes (two years in a row I saw three babies, so I think they were nesting under our MH).... We had a large dog at that time which tried to kill one set of the babies, but they kept slipping between its teeth & got away unscathed. (:


Another year our two large dogs set up frightful barking I went to investigate only to find a very large light-apricot colored
Rattler that must have recently shed its skin so that its markings were very pale & almost nonexistent. It was coiled just a few feet outside our fence, hissing at the dogs & poised in readiness to strike. I was very relieved that both dogs readily came to me when I called them, as I most certainly did NOT want to approach anywhere near that snake to get them!!! Apparently they mainly wanted to keep it out of the yard & let me know that it was there.


(It goes without saying that I'm a lot more careful about where I stem & what I wear in warm weather around here, since that first near-rattlesnake encounter I had!)



A few yrs later two Red Racer / Coach-whip snakes decided to court under our MH, & at first one climbed onto our raised porch, & then onto something else, from where it saw its reflection in the window ... & my husband looked up from his desk to see its head moving all around in the bottom window corner! (I think it was trying to find out what was making the noise from his movements inside, at first). We went out the back door & around the MH with a camera, took its picture from behind it, & then spotted its mate on the ground nearby.... I had several more sightings of large single Coach-whips for a few years (one time stalking birds by our birdbath, but it gave up & left after the birds saw it & set up an awful loud racket). Then they seemed to move on as the King-snakes previously had.


I most definitely appreciate your attitude of preserving the wildlife in your yard & locality!!!
Interesting stories 2Q&Lrn&Hlp. Wow, your Dad really kept you out of a lot of trouble! I am glad that you and your dogs did not get hurt! I am totally live and let live wherever possible. I hate to see any life wasted, even a snake!!!
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