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July 31, 2006

They're Back

The Marion County copperheads, I mean.

For the second summer in a row, Miller’s remote mountaintop home in Marion County has become a gathering place for copperhead snakes. He has counted roughly 40 copperheads since the first few appeared July 13, almost a year to the day of the snakes’ arrival last summer.

Their modus operandi is the same, too. The snakes mass beneath the same cedar tree as last year. They arrive suddenly about 8 p. m., stay for an hour or so, and then disappear.

And just like last year, they're all males. Weird. But there's a new clue as to the reason for their behavior.

Temperature loggers placed on Miller’s property this summer by an ASU graduate student are producing interesting readings.

“There is a difference, a major difference, between certain areas of the habitat as far as temperature goes. So there may be a temperature cue taking place here, where the snakes are following a temperature gradient of some sort,� [Professor] Trauth said.

“But we still don’t know,� he added, declining to be more specific about the various readings.

Ya know, many cultures believe snakes are messengers from the underworld....which might account for the temperature differential. Maybe that cedar is just another stop on the Copperhead Express line from hell.

Hey, makes about as much sense as some of the global warming theories I've seen lately.

Posted by Rita at July 31, 2006 09:20 AM

Comments

Dynamite.

Thats all I can say.

Posted by: BloodSpite at August 1, 2006 06:46 AM

Judicious application of buckshot works for me. I sure as hell wouldn't be catching them.

Posted by: Rita [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 1, 2006 08:28 AM