Just INCREDIBLE...

[Dom]

I never associated a snake with being smart .. always though of them as more of an animal that thrives on a very instinctual brain..

Heres my story..

I switched my snow bull into a cage that is FILLEd with dirt.. and She has been digging a burrow for over 4 hours now..

When i meam digging.. I mean, she is arking her neck and using it as a shovel and pulling the dirt out and going back in .. she is repeatedly doing this..

Most amazing thing I have ever seen ..

or maybe the simplest thing amazes me!

[asphyxia]

or maybe the simplest things amazes me!
That may explain your good friendship with Shane and Jeff

I'm only serious, I mean kidding.
Brian

Oh yea, would be neat to see that behaviour

[Will]

Just wait 'til she hits the bottom, bet she feels real silly then...

[snakehunter]

thats cool, thought about building an enclosure for my bp with an under 'groud' hide b/c bps i found out are fossorial

[Scales Zoo]

Hey Dom.

I've never seen this behaviour in the wild, but I have read that bullsnakes do it. I don't remember reading that other snakes do it, but bullsnakes do use their necks to pull the dirt out of a burrow that they have created with their rostral scale.

Bullsnakes will also go down a gopher hole, and catch 3 or 4 gophers, consticting them and pinning them to the walls of the burrow as they eat the others, and then come to eat them.

Bullsnakes are some of the coolest snakes for many reasons - the above are 2 of them.

Ryan

[MouseKilla]

I used to keep my southern pine in a mixture of sand and small pebbles and he loved it, spent a lot of time digging with his pointy little head. It was interesting to watch but it just became too much work to maintain that substrate, if he was the only snake that I was keeping I might still be using it but right now it's newspaper for all the snakes. Of course some of the snakes still tunnel into the newspaper rather than use the hides I have provided. Some are just natural diggers I guess.

[vanderkm]

Must have been an absolute blast to watch - and thanks for sharing the observation.

Bullsnakes are one of our favorites and I can definately confirm Ryan's observation that they do the crushing thing. Ours seemed to prefer pushing the prey against the side of the enclosure to doing a bite and constriction on it. They also seemed to search for additional prey after taking the first one and seemed to prefer several smaller prey items to one large one - much like they might find a group of gophers in a burrow.

They are definately great snakes. Any plans for baby snow bulls from your pair next year?

mary v.

[Dom]

There both over 5 feet long .. i was planning this year.. unfortunetly .. I got 2 males...

It really pisses me off when u get sold a pair and it turns out such a way .. i am seeking an adult females as we speak although I am not having lots of luck.

Dom

[Vanan]

Bullsnakes will also go down a gopher hole, and catch 3 or 4 gophers, consticting them and pinning them to the walls of the burrow as they eat the others, and then come to eat them.

Hence why they're not considered to be true constrictors. It's common with all Pituophis, and even with racers (Coluber constrictor ssp). Would love to see one do those (eat in a tunnel and excavate) myself though! Definitely one for your digital videocam Ryan!

[Scales Zoo]

Sheila always used to think it would be cool to build an underground hibernaculum, and glass it in so as to be able to watch what goes on in Winter.

We could put some live rats in there, then let a bullsnake go to work on them (watched very closely of course) and video tape it.

Ryan