[ValleyNature] bad erratum re redbelly snake food

[James W. Wolford]

My previous note dealt with two items from Maritime Noon on CBC  
Radio: Autumn colour-changes of leaves food habits of our redbelly  
snake.

I made a very serious boo-boo when I wrote on Sept. 29/09 (error  
explained under the original paragraph):

Another very interesting nat. hist. tidbit made it onto the call-in  
show when someone reported a 20-cm. red-bellied/redbelly snake in his  
basement.  Richard, who is an expert on herptiles (especially  
tadpoles), told us all that this snake was probably seeking out some  
place that was damp and below the frost line where it could  
overwinter.  He went on to say that red-bellied snakes prey  
extensively on red-backed/redback salamanders (both of them can be  
found under logs and in other hidden places).  And the red-backed  
salamander can defensively lose its tail like many lizards do, so  
that apparently the stomach contents of studied red-bellied snakes  
are biased toward just the tails of the salamanders, which can then  
escape and possibly survive to grow new-but-smaller tails and then  
perhaps get found again by a snake?  (BUT SEE BELOW!)

ERRATUM ABOVE!: I should have looked it up before reporting it as I  
heard it on the radio!  A check in my bible for N.S. herptiles,  
namely John Gilhen's well-known 1984 book, revealed a mix-up of the  
natural history of two of our snake species.  We have two species  
that are specialists on particular prey: our red-bellied snake is a  
specialist on slugs, while the ring-necked snake eats mostly red- 
backed salamanders.

Cheers from Jim in Wolfville

Jim (James W.) Wolford
91 Wickwire Ave.
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
B4P 1W3

phone 902-542-9204
e-mail <jimwolford at eastlink.ca>

"In wildness is the preservation of the world" -- Henry David Thoreau
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