Jul 19, 2007
Redding
Rare snakeskin found at park
|
by MAGGIE CALDWELL
mcaldwell@thereddingpilot.com
Larry Caldwell, a recently retired former Reddingite, turned 60 years old the day he found a five-foot-long snakeskin laid out flat on a rocky cliff overlooking Topstone Pond.
Mr. Caldwell, who now lives in Ridgefield and, yes, is related to this reporter (he’s my dad), was hiking up the Stuart Chase Long View Trail in the Redding park on a sunny Saturday at the end of May. He still comes to Topstone because it’s one of his “favorite places to hike in the immediate area.” After ascending the steep hill of Topstone Mountain, Dad walked out toward the eastern outlook where he came across the serpent’s skin.
“It was there, right out in the open as if it were waiting for me,” he said. “It looked like it had just been shed.”
The skin was in nearly perfect condition with tiny translucent diamond shaped scales and eye covers still intact. It looked as if the snake had yawned and stretched so hard its skin fell off. Only its tail was missing, broken off before the body even began to taper to a point.
Wrapping the skin around his neck like a feather boa (or a boa constrictor), Dad hiked down the hillside, through the woods and back out to Topstone Road.
He continued to wear the skin through most of the afternoon at his birthday barbecue back in Ridgefield.
A while later, we determined that the skin belonged to a black rat snake. Steven Patton, executive director of the Nature Conservancy’s Devil’s Den, identified it by “its length, some evidence of very slightly keeled scales, and by the pattern of scales on top of its head.”
“This snake prefers rugged forested terrain with ledges and rock outcroppings. They feed on small mammals and birds and are active from late April until mid October,” Mr. Patton said in an e-mail.
Dr. Nelson Gelfman, a Ridgefield native who has been studying reptiles and amphibians since he was “old enough to chase them,” said the skin was a “good find.”
“It is reassuring that they’re still around,” he said. “They used to be fairly common around here, but habitat destruction has reduced their numbers alarmingly... When we moved into our house here in Ridgefield, I would find the young ones in my garage and some of the older ones in an undeveloped lot on our street. But I haven’t
seen them here in over 20 years.”
Dr. Gelfman said the black rat snake — also known as a black mountain snake — is a constrictor, “one of the few found in this part of the world.” This means it suffocates its prey before eating it.
“Sometimes when they are disturbed, they can vibrate their tail in the leaves so they might sound like a rattler. But that’s just a ruse... They are harmless,” said Dr. Gelfman.
When told that he had found the skin of a constrictor, Dad said he might have thought twice about wrapping it so jauntily around his neck. He also said he doesn’t think he would have stuck around too long if he had come across the snake itself, still in its skin.
“Reflecting on that day and the discovery, I took it as an omen to shed my own skin,” he said. “I felt like I should shed my former life and start anew. I’m a recent retiree, I’m 60 years old and looking to reinvent myself.”
OK, Daddio. Whatever you say. Happy belated birthday.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
|
