Mass die off in the wild??

[infernalis]

I'm somewhat expecting the worse case scenario, But I am quite convinced that the extreme hard winter we had that lasted longer than usual followed immediately by flooding that subsequently froze up and then melted fast causing additional flooding has taken a hard toll on the local snake population.

Every spring for more years than I care to admit I have always went out looking for snakes, I grew up on this property and have been a herp nut since before a lot of members were even born yet, so I can honestly say I have a firm working knowledge of the populations around me here.

Lately we have had some nice sun mixed in with the rain and storms, reptiles normally take advantage of that and will bask when they can.

I went out today and turtles were basking everywhere, the peepers were chirping, everything seemed par for spring EXCEPT not one snake anywhere to be seen.

They are resilient, this has happened before, 1996 was a freak winter, the population was recovered within 3 years of that.

Odds are quite a few shallow underground den sites got obliterated by this chain of weather events..

Makes me glad that my big girls were inside all cozy and warm eating fuzzy mice and basking under a lamp.

Contemplating putting my normal male in with them, 2 litters of indigenous garters would be up to 50 snakes, "jump start" them into healthy feeding responses and let them go near my habitat project.

[NennaMeerkat]

That would be nice of you to give mother nature a hand in repopulating...but at the same time maybe there is a "reason" for the die off that needed to happen for one reason or another. If it were me I would just have a hard time saying goodbye to the babies in general, especially when it comes to letting them go in the wild not knowing if they would survive or not.

[Lankyrob]

Nature will find a way - quote from a daft film but very true.

I tend to agree with Nenna, nature knows how balance works and would have killed off these snakes for a reason - bet they are back next year!

[Shmoges]

It would be different if some company dumped waist and killed a large portion of the population.

[Wolfus_305]

We used to have tons of garter snakes at the cottage that would come out to bask in the sun on the stairs and we'd find them in the garden... past 5 years we haven't found a single one

[Shmoges]

population cycle and climate trends. rodent pops will grow crazy then comes the predators.

[Wolfus_305]

one of the neighbours hunts everything on 4 legs. squirrels, rabbits, anything. last summer was the first summer we had no rabbits eat the gardens and we didn't have any squirrel-birdfeeder conflicts

[infernalis]

The snakes are finally appearing.. so it seems like plenty of them made it.

so far have encountered a Dekayi, a Garter & a Milk Snake.

[stephanbakir]

Only one garter here, but 14 Northern Water snakes.

[mistersprinkles]

Originally Posted by Wolfus_305

one of the neighbours hunts everything on 4 legs. squirrels, rabbits, anything. last summer was the first summer we had no rabbits eat the gardens and we didn't have any squirrel-birdfeeder conflicts

Thank that crazy guy and his rifle then .

[stephanbakir]

I'd prefer to loose some crop but see rabbits then not see any at all

[Coffee Black]

Originally Posted by stephanbakir

I'd prefer to loose some crop but see rabbits then not see any at all

Definitely This.

[Coffee Black]

We just get feral cats and the film students who are, probably, just making a werewolf movie down the street. Hoping to make some trips to local spots for herps this weekend. The rain has either been completely absent or too brutal to traverse ( usually on my days off :/ )

[Dehlida]

Plenty of herps out and about, we'll have random days of 38 nights and whatnot into a nice warm weekend the next, and everything is still kicking without problems.