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Snakes, Spiders, Gulls, and Shadow?s Clan - UPDATE August 5, 2016
05 August 2016
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Snakes and Spiders? Not a problem. It?s interesting. In the Ecology Hall at the Bear Center today, between 1 and 3 PM, a 30.5-inch garter snake gave birth to 14 babies (called snakelets or neolates) Shadow
Shadow
about 6 inches apiece. The staff got video and pictures. It?s all new to me. I didn?t know each baby would be born curled up in its own amniotic sac. I didn?t see how they proceed from the sac, but the picture shows the mother about to give birth, a newly born baby still in its sac, and one less than 2 hours old stretched out and crawling. The 17-second video shows how it happens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2P4VrNCm3o&feature=em-uploademail Snakebirth must not be that bad for a mother snake. As she emptied out her abdominal cavity, she became so hungry that she ate a worm as she gave birth. She ate 5 worms in all.
Garter snake giving birth
Garter snake giving birth
Larger garter snake have more young with 10-40 being most common. I kept a 36-inch garter snake for a couple days in August or early September 1971 and was surprised to find 37 babies with her when I next looked. The babies were about the same size as the ones today.
Striped Fishing Spider
Striped Fishing Spider
The striped fishing spider story is having a happy ending. The spiders started to disperse from the nursery web today, showing that they would be off on their own in nature, so the interns released them, maybe retaining a couple.
Herring gull imm. eating bologna
Juvenile herring gull eating bologna
Out the window, the new generation of herring gulls sent a representative to try the bologna. From the vigor with which the brown hatchling bombed in on a mature gull to obtain the bologna, I?d say it was giving us a rave review about what we serve. By the time gulls are off on their own like this one, they are about the same size as adults. It can fly beautifully, skillfully winding through the trees between here and the lake. Six of the eight gulls we recognize stopped by today. The easiest way to recognize the individual adults is by dark dots on the iris. The eye shown has dark spots at about 8 o?clock and 4 o?clock on its left iris.
Herring gull eye markings
Herring gull eye markings
The update on Shadow?s Clan is not yet complete. The team is still working on corrections and additions as they come in. We learned today that Sophie has two female cubs, and that Jewels? 3 male cubs were named Caleb, Zac, and Brennan after the landowners? grandchildren. With the addition of 20 cubs this year, we now know of 245 descendents of Shadow?26 of them direct descendents and the rest from her female descendents. We know of 53 deaths. Most of the 128 male descendents have dispersed to other areas as would be expected, which means we don?t know much about them. A lot of the 114 female descendents have moved away, too. Shadow herself, at 29, is graying with age. We hope she makes it to 30, has cubs, and lives a long time after that.
We?re planning to have a picture of Lily over the outside door to the Bear Center. Many visitors will not know who it is and what she stands for, but Lily Fans will.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
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Topic: Jewel and her cubs (Read 2423647 times)