Escape of the rat snake

Feeding day for the snakes had rolled around once more and I had just one more hungry mouth to feed. This was my male Everglades rat snake, Pantherophis obsoletus rossalleni.

Now three years old, this pretty snake has been a sporadic feeder since hatching. Sometimes he will eat two or more times consecutively, but as often as not he will refuse the offered food at least once out of every two times.

This was a day he didn't choose to eat. But, as always, I left him in the feeding bucket with his thawed mouse hoping he'd change hismind (he didn't).

But at one time, when checking him, I neglected to relock the bucket. The result was, as might be expected, that when I checked the next time, the snake was gone.

The "critter" room is pretty well escape-proof but try as we might, neither Patti nor I could find a trace of that snake.

As it turned out, we really shouldn't have worried. The next afternoon, as the sun warmed the room's southern wall, I was cleaning a few cages when I glanced up and there, emerging from behind one picture, his anterior already draped over another, was the missing rat snake.

All was well with the world again. Now if I can only remember to lock things when it's necessary...

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.