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Kimberly Womack sent me this photo of a black rat snake climbing a tree to get at the nest of a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers.
Her questions (and I do not know the answers, so if you do let me know and I'll pass it along):
How does the snake know that there's a nest hole high up in the tree? Vibrations? Or does it just climb trees at random, which seems unlikely.
And why did it pass a nest hole that was lower on the trunk to get to one that's higher?
Rikki? Are you out there?
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1 comment:
I can only guess, but I will say that I've seen rat snakes both sunning and mating in trees, so perhaps they spend more time in trees than we suspect.
If the eggs had hatched and the nestlings were active, the snake could probably feel vibrations as it ascended the tree. With such a large interface to whatever surface they are on, they probably gather a lot of information from what they feel.
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