I placed the warmed mouse in a crotch only a few inches from the snake’s nose, retreated, and within minutes was gratified to see that the rat snake had found, investigated, approved, and begun to eat the mouse. Five minutes later, sated, the snake had begun his descent and spent the next few days coiled quietly amidst the plants beneath the shrub.



About a week later I noticed a shed snake skin leading into the shrub and, sure enough, there in the crotch where I had first seen him, lay the coiled rat snake. Another mouse was offered and eaten and again I watched the snake descend to what seemed to be his preferred resting spot.



The same sequence occurred three or four more times that summer and autumn. Cooler nights and shorter days were now upon us. On the last occasion, just a few days before the weather really cooled down, the snake, now larger, ate, then bypassed the usual resting place, continued across the yard to some denser vegetation, and disappeared from sight. The periodic visits were over for the year and did not again resume.

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.