Snakes alive!

In the countryside around Fryrear Road, Cascade Estates and Sun Mountain, gopher snakes appear to be on the increase.

The gopher snake, sometimes known as a "bull snake," Pituophis catinfer, is a big bluffer. When cornered, the snake will coil up, flatten its head and shake its tail, imitating a rattlesnake. It is thought that an unsure predator mistakes this behavior and the somewhat triangular-shaped head for a rattlesnake and backs off from its pursuit.

"Pituophis," by the way, means "phlegm serpent," in reference to the noticeable hiss the snake makes when bothered. Even I can hear it! The hiss is produced by use of the glottis, which opens and closes rapidly, giving a fair imitation of the rattle of a rattlesnake.

Gopher snakes are not venomous. They cannot crossbreed with rattlesnakes, as some people claim they do.

They do, however, live up to the gopher snake appellation and consume gophers and other rodents. Yes, they also prey on ground birds, tree birds, cliff birds, other reptiles and eggs of just about anything.

One of the slickest tricks I've ever seen a gopher snake pull off was on a steep cliff overhanging the John Day River. The enterprising snake had climbed the cliff and started eating cliff swallows and their eggs by going from nest to nest on the vertical face. Eventually the snake became so heavy from dining on birds that it finally tore a nest from the cliff and plunged into the river.

Gopher snakes can also swim very well.

The other day, my wife Sue and my daughter Miriam were driving from our home at Sun Mountain to Redmond and from Central Street to Highway 126; they saw three gopher snakes alongside the road, one of which was this year's young. To see one all summer is a treat; to find three in one day is remarkable.

I have no explanation for this apparent increase in gopher snakes, except to give credit to the abundant hay fields that support an equally abundant population of rodents. There may be an increase of meadow and sagebrush voles (small mice-like rodents that resemble the lemming of the north).

Voles are the favored food of most predators, from hawks to skunks to coyotes to bobcats and hawks and owls. If a predator is going to increase in numbers, they will do it after a banner year in prey.

Gopher snakes hibernate in winter in communal dens, sometimes sharing their hibernaculum with rattlesnakes, whipsnakes and racers. But in the breeding season, males vigorously defend their territories against all competing males and other snakes - there's just so much food to go around.

Combat between male gopher snakes, which may last up to an hour, has been mistaken for a courtship display between males and females. The males do a lot of head rearing, hissing, intertwining and slithering along the ground with upraised heads - combatants focused on the task at hand, oblivious even to human onlookers.

Six weeks after mating, females lay a clutch from two to 24 eggs each. Hatchlings, which are sometimes the color of green grass of spring, emerge fully developed within 10 weeks and are large enough to eat small mice and juicy insects.

Whatever the reason, and if gophers snakes are on the increase east of Sisters, it can only be good news to ranchers, farmers and suburbanites. Anything that eats rodents is always good news, no matter where you live.

Gopher snakes are sometimes referred to as "typical snakes," the Colubrids, which, incidentally, comprise the largest snake family by far, with more than 2,000 species worldwide.

If you have a gopher snake turn up on your road or near your home, please send me an e-mail: [email protected] with the general geographical location (please do not send your house number).