A caller sent me a picture of a snake. The photo was hard to differentiate, but the lack of a discernible pattern pointed me toward a racer.
So I explained who he had visiting.
“Call him Rudy.”
It's getting cold out. Rudy found an easy entrance, a place to warm up, and an opportunity to keep eating. There was a perfectly ordinary snake explanation for what was happening.
Rudy has a winter to prepare for.
A racer is an active, high-metabolism snake. He gobbles down anything small enough to overpower. No venom. No constriction. He catches his meals and gets on with it.
That's a lot of calories to gather before it gets so cold he has to brumate. He's building up the reserves that will carry him through the cold months. Then he'll retreat underground, deep enough to get below the frost line, and slow down enough that he won't have to eat.
Brumation is the reptile version of winter downtime. Rudy's busy feeding season gives way to a much quieter one. A snake looking for shelter as the weather changes is doing what a snake needs to do to get through winter.
For readers curious about racers, the National Park Service describes their active hunting, varied diet, and shared winter dens. Rudy has company in this business of getting through the cold.
A different ending to a snake call.
As usual, I asked the caller if he felt better.
He said yes.
“Good. Tell Rudy I said hi.”
I save Georges at every show.
I do a lot of this. For free.
The phone calls and photo identification happen between shows, on my time and at my expense. Someone has a snake and a concern. I bring the experience to explain what they're looking at and what that animal is doing.
At my shows, I save Georges. On the phone, I save Rudys. A little understanding can change what happens to the next snake someone meets. The laughter and the reptile education go home with people, and the work carries on when the show is over.
That's part of what I do at Snake Encounters. The caller feels better. The snake gets a chance to keep being a snake.
