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Posts by Peter Stafford: |
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Peter Stafford Member Joined: 04 Dec 2003 No. of posts: 2  View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 12 Jul 2006
Topic: grass snakes swimming in the sea?
A collegue here at work was telling me recently about a small grass snake that she saw last summer on a beach near Minsmere. The snake (a hatchling or yearling by her estimate of size) was moving toward the sea and within a yard of the water's edge, though not actually in the sea. Peter |
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Peter Stafford Member Joined: 04 Dec 2003 No. of posts: 2 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 13 Jul 2006
Topic: Natrix feeding on carrion
One of the snakes captured during a field study in Sussex this year regurgitated the limb & foot of an adult toad that appears to have been ingested as carrion - both were neatly severed and covered with the eggs of blow flies. I'm wondering how widespread/frequent this behaviour might be. Records of colubrids feeding on carrion are not uncommon but the only reference I can find describing this behavior in grass snakes is for a populaton in Italy (Herpetol. J., 15: 221-230). With a generalised diet presumably it is not that rare - does anyone have any other observations of such behaviour? Peter |
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