THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 30, 1995 TAG: 9508290154
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
John Cassada will never trust me again. After I told him the eggs in his garden were probably box turtle eggs, the eggs turned out to be snake eggs! Then I told him the snakes were baby black rat snakes and now I find out the baby snakes were black racers instead.
Maurice Cullen, who takes care of the reptiles at the Virginia Marine Science Museum, called to set me straight after last week's column. He knew instantly from looking at the photo that Cassada's baby snakes were black racers.
Like the black rat snake, the black racer is one of our more common, harmless and beneficial snakes. Babies and adults of both species look a lot alike and are hard for the lay person to tell apart. At least, that's my defense.
Although both baby black racers and black rat snakes are heavily patterned and don't look at all like their sleek black parents, Cullen said, their youthful patterns are easy to distinguish once you've seen them often enough.
``Usually the racers have more of a cross band of black,'' Cullen explained, ``and the black rat snakes have more of a squarish blotch. The black blotch on the black rat snake stays on the back and the racer's blotch looks more like a saddle.''
When the little snakes hatched in Cassada's garden, we pored over photos in the snake books trying to figure out whether the babies were black rat snakes or black racers and finally decided on the former. Now, even after getting caught short, I'm not sure I will be able to tell the difference the next time.
``It's even harder to tell the grown-ups apart,'' Cullen said. ``They are both black as adults although the black rat snake can have a whiteish belly. The black racer may have some white on its chin, but it's usually all black.''
The black racer is more slender than the black snake. The black racer will climb to escape a predator or to catch its prey, but the black rat snake is truly arboreal and can climb just about anything. Both eat much the same food, like mice and frogs, he added, but the black snake is a constrictor, while the black racer is not (despite its Latin name, Coluber constrictor).
Both will strike when accosted, but the black rat snake tends to calm down in captivity while the black racer doesn't adapt well. The black rat snake tends not to be as skitterish as the black racer. True to its common name, the black racer moves quickly.
``A black racer, if they see you, they're gone!'' Cullen said.
And the next time I'm tempted to identify anything reptilian, I'm outta here, too.
AS LONG AS I'M CONFESSING to mistakes, I made another error in that column, as Cullen also pointed out. I said that baby garter snakes hatched from eggs. They don't.
The harmless brownish garter snake, with its yellowish stripes, gives birth to its young alive, as do a lot of other snakes. The garter snake may give birth to up to 80 tiny, skinny snakes around 6 inches long. The average litter size is 22 and, in this case, the babies do look like their parents.
Even though the garter snake gives live birth to its babies, it doesn't change one correct fact in last week's column: Any snake born from eggs in your garden will be harmless. Virginia's poisonous snakes all give live birth and that's according to Cullen, the expert.
P.S. GO DOLPHIN WATCHING with the Virginia Marine Science Museum over the holiday weekend. Trips are at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Boats leave from the Virginia Beach Fishing Center at Rudee Inlet. Call 437-4949 to make reservations. The cost is $12 for adults and $10 for children 11 and under.
Tropical visitors to the Chesapeake Bay is the focus of special aquariums and programming Saturday through Monday at the museum. Call 437-4949.
MYTHS, MAGIC AND MIRRORS is the theme of a special tour at 2 p.m., Saturday at historic Adam Thoroughgood House. Call 664-6283 for reservations. Admission is $2. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
These baby snakes are black racers, not black rat snakes. Maurice
Cullen, of the Virginia Marine Science Museum, set the record
straight.
by CNB