On 5/10/07, Janice McDonald <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > SHOULD I WORRY?? I came home to find this track in my driveway. At > the widest point it was six inches across?? Are there snakes besides > rattlesnakes that get this fat??
If it was a snake, remember that the animal will push the sand as it moves, creating a much larger track than the animal's body is. So it's not necessarily a rattlesnake, or cottonmouth. Any of the pit vipers tend to be pretty fat, about 3-4" wide tops, and that would be a really big one, like 5+ feet long. It could just as easily be a pine snake, ratsnake, etc etc which are very harmless, and will do some great rodent prevention. Your area is blessed with a pretty wide variety of snakes--lucky you, cause I like 'em!! :) Be aware of it, make sure you clear away any piles of wood, fenceposts, debris, etc. around your animals/house. If you don't provide places to hide, the snakes won't live there. I'd suggest learning a bit about them too, so you can identify the worrisome ones--rattlesnakes, cottonmouths (but they are generally around fresh water), copperheads, and coral snakes. The first 3 might make you sick but the 4th can kill you, and they tend to be secretive. I doubt any of those would hunt your birds, and would pretty much leave them alone unless a chicken was dumb enough to go up to one and peck at it. They will mostly stick to rodents. Robyn
