SNAKES ALIVE!
July/August 2008
High summer and all quietens down in the woods, as the bird
kingdom has no need to sing anymore, the job of breeding being
all but over. But nature more than compensates for the lack of
soundtrack with a feast for the eyes. The moors and heaths of
Britain for example are awash with a palette of purple and yellow,
as the heather and gorse compete with vivid colours for our attention.
'Kissing is in season when gorse is in flower', they say, with
their tongues in their cheeks, as gorse is in flower for most
of the year. But here in the Westcountry its the western gorse
that flowers in these summer months, exuding a heady sweet coconut
fragrance that fills the air and lifts the spirit .....
Up on the heath I was out rambling the other day when I spotted
a secretive grass snake (natrix natrix) lurking in the undergrowth.
I was excited to meet a snake on my path, as it is a relatively
rare encounter, as they are not so common as they once were.
(Intensified agriculture since the 50's has dwindled their numbers,
though a change in farming practice has revived them again).
So I watched this mysterious apparition for a while as it lay
there in perfect stillness, with a kind of hypnotic blue beauty.
After some time, however, it occurred to me that it might be
dead, but remembering their propensity to 'play dead' I made
sure, with a bit of gentle provocation with a long stick.
Under assault a grass snake will hiss, bite,
and even issue forth a foul fishy-smelling liquid from its cloaca.
As a last resort, if the threat persists, it will feign death
in a most convincing pantomime. This particular specimen did
none of the above and thus I was afforded a lovely long lingering
look at this reticent creature. They are easily distinguished
from their British cousins the adders and smooth snakes by colour
and size. If it’s
more than a couple of feet long, chances are it will be a grass
snake, and if it’s longer than 90cm, it will be the female.
The longest recorded in Britain was a staggering 6ft long!
Although they vary in colour, ranging from olive-green through
brown to a greyish blue, their most characteristic feature are
the two crescent-shaped markings on its 'collar' below its head,
usually yellowish although in older animals this can turn to
a more orange colour.
Their life cycle includes a period of hibernation from October
to March. They are usually found in damp habitats including river
banks, ponds and ditches, but they also inhabit hedgerows, woodland
margins, farmland and meadows.
Grass snakes are never too far from water, in which they will
hunt for their main diet of frogs, newts, tadpoles and toads.
They can be seen swimming with ease, and around July they will
be incubating eggs in the build up of damp, dead, decaying vegetation
that can be found at the edges of ponds, or even, of course,
your compost heap! This combination of warm weather, and the
heat generated by decomposition are ideal conditions for a clutch
of 10-40 leathery-skinned eggs. (The grass snake is the only
native snake to lay eggs). What a wildlife treasure to find!
If they can avoid being predated by cats, herons, badgers, hedgehogs
and lawnmowers, they can live up to a wildly impressive 25years!
Often the only indication of grass snakes in the vicinity will
be the evidence they leave behind. As they grow, they slough
or shed their skins, which is probably why they have always been
associated by traditional societies (and Jungian analysts!) as
a symbol of transformation, or death and rebirth.
I picked up the lifeless reptile on the
heath and was reminded of the last time I held a dead snake
in my hand, a black mamba in Zimbabwe, which as you probably
know are among the deadliest snakes in the world. It had just
been shot as it had posed a very real threat to the local children,
and always ready to practice the principles of bushcraft in
this case, opportunism, I decided I could use the skin for
my 'treasure box,’ my wildlife
paraphernalia that I use as an educational tool. I had precious
little time before we left the area, so I had to get on with
it. Even though I knew it was dead, it was a most unsettling
experience to skin an animal whilst it was still moving! Its
nerves were still reacting causing a writhing movement which
made it akin to taking a tight sock of a wriggling child.....
In Africa of course, you might eat the snake, and I’m told
it can taste like chicken. So now I’m wondering if any
of you fervent ‘wild fooders’ have ever had the opportunity
to sample a British snake….? (Needless to say, grass snakes
are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 from
being killed, injured or sold)
And did I ever tell you about the time
I accidentally trod on a 12ft African python? Well, that’s
another WildWise campfire story....!
|
