If there were such a thing as a category for “Best Actor in the Reptile World,” the eastern hognose snake would certainly be a nominee.
The eastern hognose snake, Heterodon platyhinos, is a denizen of sandhill and other xeric habitats of the eastern U.S. The snake has an upturned rostral scale it utilizes as a digging tool to help search for its principle prey of toads.
These snakes can be variable in coloration with reds, yellows or gray mixed into their pattern, and also can commonly be solid black. Besides its upturned snout, which gives it an almost comical look, this snake is best known for being an extremely good actor.
We recently encountered two specimens of eastern hognose snake in the wild. When we first approached one specimen, a near three-foot long female clad in beautiful golden yellow and black, she began to spread her neck very much like a cobra and hissed as she swayed her head back and forth. To the uninitiated she may have appeared to have been quite dangerous! However, this “act” did not work on us, so it was on to act two!
When hissing, spreading, and bluffing did not work, she then proceeded to simply roll over onto her back and writhe around with her mouth wide open and her tongue hanging out, then went completely limp. She pretended to die. What an act that was! She was better than any cowboy in any old western movie I have ever seen.
After we took a few photographs to preserve the encounter, we hiked another fifty feet where, to our surprise, we encountered another eastern hognose snake, this time an adult male clad in gray and silver with a slight pattern. He did not display the way the female did, but instead immediately went limp and “died.” What an incredible find! Two hognose snakes, within fifty feet of one another and both looked completely different!
Their “acting” behavior alo makes them one of the most interesting snakes to encounter in he field in North America. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
