Cali
Milksnake (Lampropeltis triangulum)
About me
| Basic Info | Home: | Yo dudes! Cali is the name, slithering the game – I've slithered in Canada, America and all the way down to South America. |
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| Size: | I've got a milksnake mate Marky Low (we call him Fresh N' Low), I swear he's 60 inches long if he's an inch. Alas, I'm only a measly 20 inches, but just goes to show, eh? | |
| Favourite foods: | When I was growing up I used to love worms and slugs, they're small fry now though – if I can get my hands on a lizard, a wee mammal, a bird, a frog or a fish I'm a happy bunny – especially if I eat a happy bunny. Heck, I've even has other snakes for dinner, I'm not fussy. | |
| Environment: | It varies – I like to kick about the forest floor and a few open fields but my uncle lives up in the rocks, really, really high up, much higher than Ben Nevis! | |
| Sounds like: | HISSSSSSSSSS! |
| Further Info |
Interestingly their particular fondness of barns gave rise to a myth which may be how the milksnake got its name. It was believed since milksnakes were often seen around cow barns that they suckled on the milk from the cows udders. We know today of course that this is untrue; for one thing the anatomy of the milksnakes head and mouth simply does not equip it for such a task. Across their impressive range milksnakes can vary quite widely in many aspects especially appearance and are split into at least 25 sub-species. The vast majority of milksnakes though display some variation on a very distinctive pattern of brightly coloured bands going around the body in the order red, black, white/yellow, black repeated down the length off the snake. Now for a small and harmless forest floor snake with many predators this seems like terrible camouflage. It is in fact a rather clever trick though called batesian mimicry, the milksnake is imitating the highly venomous coral snake and by doing so tricks many of its predators into leaving it in peace. You can tell the difference between a milksnake and a coral snake by remembering a short rhyme which refers to the order of their coloured bands, “red on yellow kill a fellow, red on black venom lack”. |
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| Useful links |