garter snake den question(field)

[Reticsrule]

i was out herping the other day and found a little den or family of garter snakes(probably 4-6) in a hole in one of those huge layered rocks. i was sitting there handling them for a few minutes and then i left. i went back a few days later thinking they would still be there because i thought they lived there. when i got to the place where i found them there wasnt a single trace of any of them. do you think they left because i was handling them and they got scared away or were they just hiding deeper in their den and not out basking at the time?

[snakehunter]

Sounds like you may have found them when they where coming out of hibernation, or the lot of them jus happened to be at the same basking place.......I doubt that they woukd den together OTHER than hibernation, extra snakes = competition, and they have it hard enough as it is.
-Jacob