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Post by johno on May 15, 2012 15:09:54 GMT -5
Look what I found trying to eat an egg...  |
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Post by 12540dumont on May 15, 2012 15:50:20 GMT -5
Yeah, I got one out of the rabbit house. Actually, I couldn't see it's head so I grabbed the rabbit and her nestlings. She was a nervous wreck, standing on the nest and stamping herself silly.
I have a lot of gophers, I think they should eat those in stead! No eggs, please. I hope you have it a good talking to!
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Post by johno on May 15, 2012 16:05:29 GMT -5
I moved it to a better place.
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Post by steev on May 17, 2012 23:18:45 GMT -5
Snakes have gotten such bad press. So much of it is pure BS. I have serious doubts about the whole "eating eggs" thing. There are snakes that clearly do eat eggs; they tend to have adaptations that facilitate this, but they are very few species, not found in the Americas, I think. Most snakes that are reputed to eat eggs are actually rodentivores, for which reason they may be found aroud chickencoops. Further, snakes enjoy free warmth, being cold-blooded, so a warm nest is cozy. This is not to say a snake might not take a chick if it could, but a vigilent hen would have something to say about that.
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Post by steev on May 17, 2012 23:23:41 GMT -5
Mother ducks are generally no slouches about protecting their babies, either.
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Post by steev on May 30, 2012 0:19:57 GMT -5
Speaking of which, more years ago than seems reasonable to me, I took my daughter to Lake Merritt Park, where we were walking around and heard a commotion from the stream. Going to look, there was a nightheron holding a duckling in its bill and the mother duck going berserk attacking the nightheron, which dropped the duckling. It was all droopy, probably in shock, but eventually perked up and rejoined its nestmates, swimming about. Somehow the notion of a duck being aggressive doesn't seem right to me, but that was a pretty good lesson in real life, as opposed to my image of timid ducks. They haven't survived all these years by being wusses.
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 30, 2012 4:56:32 GMT -5
I can tell ya true Steev, snakes DO eat eggs. We found a rat snake in a coop just beginning to take down an egg. It was far enough down that even as Mike pulled it from the nest the egg continued to be swallowed. It wasn't the first egg either, there were 2 other belly lump. The snake was about 8' long. Way longer than Mike is tall, and rather on the "plump" side for a snake. We encouraged him to take his eggs and go to the forest.
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Post by steev on May 30, 2012 10:41:36 GMT -5
OK; I accept that correction. The snakes that are specifically adapted to egg-eating have spines at the throat that puncture the egg, so it can be collapsed, rather than swallowed whole.
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 30, 2012 11:35:51 GMT -5
Seriously? That's fascinating! You could still see the shapes of the eggs in our snake. Apparently it didn't take long for it to consume each one so maybe, regardless of the spinal damage, the eggs hadn't broken into pieces yet? Regardless, that was one happy and well fed snake!
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Post by steev on May 30, 2012 23:54:35 GMT -5
I think there are no snakes outside of Africa that have that adaptation for collapsing the eggs; they're pretty much obligate egg-eaters and have to essentially fast through no-eggs season.
Why do I think of putting a panel with a hole in it to separate nests, as a snake trap? I'm a very weird person!
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 31, 2012 8:13:49 GMT -5
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Post by johno on May 31, 2012 15:33:58 GMT -5
Steev, this snake had its head over an egg when I caught it. It spit it out when I grabbed it. I've caught similar snakes killing chicks by trying to eat them.
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Post by steev on Jun 2, 2012 0:05:13 GMT -5
I accept reports of egg-eating. Please bear in mind that I am a city boy, with virtually no experience of livestock (except cats and dogs, and possums, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, and rats; your typical urban fauna). Clearly, New World snakes have to swallow eggs whole and uncollapsed, eggs being remarkably crush-resistant structurally.
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