Interesting pics I have taken recently

I was loading wood last week and was greeted by momma skunk. She popped out of the wood pile and pointed her business end at me at about two feet! Thank god she held off as I sprinted off. I am pretty sure Usain Bolt would have had to turn in one of his best times to outrun me. I was sneaky enough to get a picture of her litter.

The second and third pictures are something I would never believe if I hadn’t seen it myself. I was looking for morels when I ran across a Bull snake. He was pretty big and just coiled up. I called over my buddy and we looked at him for a few minutes. I was explaining to him how Bull snakes will flatten their head and hiss like a Cobra. Then when you poke at them the flop over and play dead. He looked at me and laughed. So I grabbed a stick to show him. He did exactly what they always do. It let out a bunch of mean hiss’ and stood like a Cobra. So I poke him and he flopped right over and play like he was dieing. What happened next was something I still have a hard time believing. As he was putting on his act, he hacked up a fawn leg! I stood there speechless. Never in a million years would I have guessed it. I assume the snake found the dismembered fawn and got a free meal. The leg was only about the circumference of my thumb but nonetheless. The second pic is the snake playing dead (yes, it’s still alive) with the leg to the left of it. They third is a closeup of the leg.

The stuff a guy sees while spending time in the woods…..

Thats pretty cool! Thanks for the pics!

Now that is crazy!!

Crazy!

If you grouse hunt in that area those baby skunks should die. Sounds cruel but **** em.

Jon,

A few years back I was really deep into herpetology (snakes) and I’ve got a couple questions for you.

When you say the snake flattens it’s head out, do you mean the neck area flattens and hoods like a cobra?

Also, the only U.S. snake I ever read about that had this behavior is the Eastern Hognose Snake. I’ve encountered two in my lifetime and the markings on the ones I saw do not match the snake you have pictured. Reptiles can have differing color morphs in their gene pool but this is fairly rare. Does this snake have a nose that turns upward?

Lastly, if this is actually an eastern hognose, I’m also shocked at what it coughed up! Mainly because their main diet is ANTS! This has always presented a challenge with snake collectors because ants are not a ready food source that is available for “pet” owners, they won’t eat them dead, and they will die without them in their diet. The only thing that comes to mind is if the fawn leg was covered in ants and the snake was seizing opportunity.

The regurgitation of the leg itself isn’t strange. A snake under stress will almost always get rid of a fresh meal because it’s harder to move/escape with a “lump” in the tube. It’s why snakes eat and hide as much as possible.