Behavior
Fox snakes are primarily diurnal and terrestrial, rodent feeding snakes. The western fox snake takes a range of suitably sized mammals including mice, rats and even small rabbits while the eastern fox snake specializes on meadow voles and takes other prey much less frequently. Birds and other animals are also occasional prey. Both kill their prey by constriction, though small prey may be eaten without constriction.
Fox snakes, like many other harmless snakes, sometimes mimic rattlesnakes by vibrating their tails. This defensive strategy backfired when humans began persecuting rattlesnakes and, with them, fox snakes. They are generally docile animals but may bite when molested. Their bite feels like very small needle punctures, but do not do any lasting damage. The bite is primarily used for holding purposes.
In the winter months fox snakes will hibernate, often congregating with other snakes, even those of other species, in suitable den sites.
Read more about this topic: Fox Snake
Famous quotes containing the word behavior:
“No one thinks anything silly is suitable when they are an adolescent. Such an enormous share of their own behavior is silly that they lose all proper perspective on silliness, like a baker who is nauseated by the sight of his own eclairs. This provides another good argument for the emerging theory that the best use of cryogenics is to freeze all human beings when they are between the ages of twelve and nineteen.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)
“Children, randomly at first, hit upon something sooner or later that is their mother’s and/or father’s Achilles’ heel, a kind of behavior that especially upsets, offends, irritates or embarrasses them. One parent dislikes name-calling, another teasing...another bathroom jokes. For the parents, this behavior my have ties back to their childhood, many have been something not allowed, forbidden, and when it appears in the child, it causes high-voltage reaction in the parent.”
—Ellen Galinsky (20th century)
“A method of child-rearing is not—or should not be—a whim, a fashion or a shibboleth. It should derive from an understanding of the developing child, of his physical and mental equipment at any given stage, and, therefore, his readiness at any given stage to adapt, to learn, to regulate his behavior according to parental expectations.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)