Gophersnake Bluff

My boys and I stopped to move a gophersnake off the road. Things played out pretty much like I expected. However, my youngest son got a bit of a surprise. Please note, gophersnakes are absolutely harmless. Most of their strikes are just bluffs. In the occasional cases where they actually do bite, it typically results in a few very minor scratches. The only one at risk from this encounter was me -I had a lot of explaining to do when my wife saw this video!

Gopher and Bull snakes use a variety of bluff techniques to ward off potential predators. They are almost all displayed in this brief video. When this snake froze motionless on the road, he was hoping we had not seen him. When Zach picked him up mid-body, he remained still in hopes that Zach would lose interest and put him back down. When Zach (unfortunately) took the bad advice from Josh to grab his head, the snake recognized this as an increased threat. He responded by emitting a loud hiss and a bluff strike. These defense ploys worked extremely well as Zach dropped the snake and ran off.. The snake then fled to grass and relied on crypsis (camouflage) to hide from the threat. When we approached him again, he assumed a defensive coil in preparation (or bluff) to strike. He also puffed himself up with air to appear larger and more formidable. He emitted some additional hissing, but at a low volume and most were not picked up by my camera. The only notable defense ploy commonly used by gophersnakes that this snake did not employ was vibrating his tail. If he had done this in the dry grass and gravel, it likely would have sounded similar to a rattlesnake.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Gophersnake
• gopher snake
• bullsnake
• pituophis
• bluff
• hiss
• strike

[Grimmhollow]

Got me, I laughed. Very good information on the defenses that these guys use. Great video. :D

[MeanGeneOakerlund]

Awesome video!