I just saw a wonderful, and apparantly rare, ring-neck snake slither down from a log to the underneath, displaying a striking bright orange strip along its lower sides. It curled and twisted itself in an interesting and unusual way. I looked it up and the best photo I could find is this one:
This description of behavior from the wikipedia article very much captures what I observed. It’s been a cool and mostly cloudy weekend and the sun’s just come out, so the behavior is perfectly described in this excerpt.
“Ring-necked snakes are rarely aggressive to larger predators suggesting that their venom evolved as a feeding strategy rather than a defense strategy. Rather than try to bite a predator the snake winds up its tail into a corkscrew exposing the brightly colored belly[4].”
“Ring-necked snakes are primarily nocturnal or highly crepuscular, though some diurnal activity has been observed[4]. Individuals are sometimes found during the day, especially on cloudy days, sunning themselves to gain heat[4]. Yet, most individuals lie directly under surface objects that are warmed in the sun and use conduction with that object to gain heat[4].”
There’s more information available on this family of snakes here, including an image of one cozying up in someone’s hand. Be sure and browse down throughout the page for more information and some photos from other encounters with this snake here in California.
