So somewhat overshadowed by sunday's dolphinfest was saturday's cute animal find. This one was quite literally found on my door step. This is a baby Arrhyton exiguum, the Antillean ground snake. Now I've featured this snake before and that specimen was found at the house and was, though quite small, full grown. This one, by contrast, is a neonate baby and hence absolutely tiny. Its even possible its the offspring of the previous snake....By the unscientific process of holding my hand against the screen I can tell you this is roughly 2X life size. I do not have enormous troll hands.
It was so small it was totally able to coil itself around a single finger. Even the non-snakey amongst you must find that cute. No?
Both this /\ and this \/ are roughly 3X life size.
These guys are mostly hiding away kinds of snakes, living under rocks and so forth. I suspect at this size they probably prey on ants and similar insects for the most part. I also suspect that had he stayed on my door step much longer before I emerged a thrasher would have caught and killed him. Birds are probably the main native predator for these guys and the racers. I've seen red-tails with snakes here and kestrels will take ground reptiles too. At this size the Pearly-eyed Thrasher would definitely tuck in too.
5 comments:
That is adorable. Actually even cuter than the baby dolphin (but probably because I'm the only girl I know who has no fear of reptiles at all).
That really is cute. Nice one!
Thanks both - it's a cutie all right.
Julia - you're not alone in being a girl reptile lover; I kept it in a terrarium for a few hours til my fiancee got back as I would never have heard the end of it if I'd let it go before she got to see it.
Your fiancee rocks. :-)
A few weeks ago I was at The Tropical Forest at Syon Park, with a boa constrictor wrapped round my leg as another woman cowered in the corner of the classroom crying.
In my experience, girls are better with snakes than guys-- and this from a museum that introduced live snakes to schoolkids.
Thanks for an awesome series of cuteness, Tai... this guy reminds me of our baby garters or racers. May have to post them soon.
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