{"id":54973,"date":"2020-07-16T10:59:51","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T14:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/?post_type=news&p=54973"},"modified":"2020-12-18T09:49:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T14:49:04","slug":"nature-now-pine-snake-nests","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/news\/nature-now-pine-snake-nests\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature Now! Pine Snake Nests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the northern pine snake (Pituophis m. melanoleucus<\/em>) is among our largest and most impressive snakes, comparatively few North Carolinians have ever seen one. State-listed as Threatened, pine snakes occur primarily in our Sandhills region. A small population also occurs in Brunswick and (at least historically) New Hanover counties, and there are a few records from Cherokee and Swain counties in the southwestern Mountains. Powerful, diurnal constrictors, pine snakes feed mostly on mammals and birds. For such large snakes, they are surprisingly secretive, spending much time underground.<\/p>\n

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\nPM25\u2019s newly completed nest this year (July 3, 2020).<\/span><\/p>\n

Nesting is a major undertaking for pine snakes. Most of our 19 other egg-laying species just deposit their eggs in decaying vegetation, inside rotten logs or stumps, or beneath sheltering objects, but pine snakes put considerably more effort into the process. A female pine snake excavates, using her only tools\u2014her pointed nose, tipped with its large, heavy rostral scute, and her muscular body\u2014a tunnel between two and five feet long, ending in a chamber large enough to contain her body and her egg clutch. Pine snake eggs are larger than those of any other North Carolina snake (about chicken egg size), and their small clutches (4-12; usually about 7-8) represent a huge investment. A nest may take days to complete, the snake dragging out sand bit by bit and resting periodically. The whole process can take up to a week. The female may rest in the nest chamber for a day or two after laying her eggs, but then abandons them.<\/p>\n

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\nMy female PM11, caught in the act of digging (June 26, 2020).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A disjunct northern pine snake population in the New Jersey Pine Barrens has been well-studied over the years, but outside that region, the species\u2019 ecology and reproductive biology are less well known. Most nests reported from North Carolina are ones I\u2019ve found by following radio-telemetered females. The several I\u2019ve monitored over the years have had a high hatch success rate (>95%). So, whenever I have a telemetered female out, I always feel excited and fortunate to find her nest and monitor it over the summer. In September I begin checking the nest frequently, hoping to see shed natal skins, which would indicate that hatching has occurred.<\/p>\n

Upon finding these (usually in late September or early October\u2014later if I don\u2019t find them), I\u2019ll carefully dig up the nest and collect and preserve the eggshells, documenting the total number hatched vs. unhatched, and record depth and dimensions of the nest chamber. This is good information that\u2019s hard to come by. So far, the nests I\u2019ve found have been deeper, and in more shaded\/canopied areas, than those documented in the Jersey Pine Barrens\u2014perhaps because summers are hotter here. In the Barrens, pine snakes sometimes nest communally, and females may reuse old nest chambers from previous years.<\/p>\n

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\nEggshells from PM25\u2019s 2019 nest (all seven had hatched; eggshells excavated Oct. 9, 2019).<\/span><\/p>\n

That hasn\u2019t been documented yet in North Carolina, although I\u2019ve known telemetered adults (one male, two females who had previously nested) to enter active nest chambers. Sometimes there are surprises\u2014occasionally I\u2019ve found hatchlings that had emerged, shed their natal skins, and then re-entered the nest. Once I was extremely fortunate to visit a nest just as the hatchlings were emerging\u2014seven perfect babies were concealed beneath leaf litter immediately above the nest (when we excavated it a few days later, eight hatched eggshells were found, so we missed one)! Other surprises are less pleasant, like the severe poison-oak rash you can get from digging up a nest with bare hands, breaking rootlets, and getting sap in cuts and scratches (if you think you don\u2019t react to urushiol, try it sometime).<\/p>\n

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\nFour of eight hatchlings from my telemetered female PM19 (aka Maggie), found just-emerged (Oct. 3, 2018).<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, the large female (PM25, aka Dark Lady) that I\u2019ve been radio-tracking for over a year on Sandhills Game Lands in Scotland County, nested right on schedule; I was fortunate to locate her completed nest on 3 July, only about 130 feet from the spot where she nested last year (all seven of those eggs hatched) on almost exactly the same date. But equally exciting, and more unexpected, I was investigating her old nest site from last year (the following day, 4 July) and found what is almost certainly another nest, only a few meters from her 2019 nest and about 140 feet from her current one.<\/p>\n

So, hopefully, I have two pine snake nests to check this fall. It\u2019ll be like opening a couple of Christmas presents early.<\/p>\n

By Jeffrey C. Beane, Collections Manager for Herpetology<\/em><\/p>\n

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