The poor victim is an eastern hognose snake and eastern hognose snakes do several things very well. They puff up and act as if they are the most terrible creature to crawl the face of the earth, hiss loudly and even strike without biting (mouth closed). If this doesn't stop a potential predator, the hognose moves on to plan 'B'.
Plan 'B' consists of a very convincing agonizing fake death followed by the emissions of an odor that smells something like rotting flesh.
When I arrived I thought the hognose snake was dead and I waited for the kingsnake to consume it. I waited and waited but it appeared as if the kingsnake had a sudden loss of appetite, and it just crawled away. The hognose snake remained on it's back "dead as a door knob". I decided to roll the snake over just to look at it and when I did the snake forcefully rolled back to it's "dead" position. It seem as if the hognose snake's plan 'B' worked. |
