juvenile Water Snakes away from water

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Everyone,

Last year I summarized my data on Water Snakes, and found that my notion
that juveniles were found hundreds of metres from water, while adults
were always near a stream or marsh, was well supported by the data
(Schueler, Frederick W. 2026. Terrestrial activity by Nerodia sipedon in
eastern Ontario. The Canadian Herpetologist Winter 2025-2026 15:17-19).

So far this year, we've had two road-killed adults, both on roads right
through or beside wetlands, and just now there were two road-killed
juveniles on the streets in the centre of Bishops Mills, 300m from the
nearest water.

What these juvenile snakes are doing away from water, what they eat, and
how they hibernate are unlikely to be studied, because like so many late
summer and autumnal phenomena they occur just as summer internships are
ending and university classes are getting underway.

If there was any gumption to Canadian patriotism, it would be a major
national project to understand how every species gets through the
winter, with a September to January field season, and the destinations
and mechanisms of all small snakes would be an important element of such
a project.

fred.
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---------Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad ------------
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
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