Honduran Milksnake

Honduran Milksnake

Honduran Milk Snakes (binary/octet-stream)

Honduran Milksnake

Leche (Female)    Born @ Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, Oct 2005 (13 years old in 2018) Lifespan: Wild (15 yrs), Capitivity (20+ yrs)   To prepare carrier: Line with newspaper. If outdoor temperature is less than 70*F, please take a heat disk (wrapped in newspaper) in the carrier. Heat disks are pink and can be found in the reptile kitchen (ask education staff). To warm the heat disk, microwave it for 1-4 minutes. Do not heat more than 3 disks at a time. The microwave can be found on top of the fridge in education animal holding. Make sure carrier is not broken and there is a pillowcase inside. Place snake inside pillowcase and lightly knot pillowcase, leaving enough room for snake to move around (please ask for assistance). Snakes will be transported inside the pillowcase, which is secure in the carrier.  

Handling snakes

Handling: Snakes' body weight is spread fairly evenly across their entire body, so to support their entire body with two hands, hold at 1/3 their body length from their head and from their tail. Snakes can be held in one hand if their entire body is supported by one hand. Do not let more than 1/3 of the body be unsupported at a time. Never hang the snake around your neck or let them go through belt loops or in your clothes. Pulling the snake out backwards can flip up scales; you will have to pull them head first through whatever they have gotten themselves into (you may lose a belt loop).GUESTS MAY NOT HOLD ANY ANIMAL, INCLUDING INVERTEBRATES AND ANIMALS IN THEIR CARRIERS. Snakes are allowed to be touched by guests, one at a time, using the two finger policy, between your hands at 1/3 and 2/3. Make sure touching occurs in the direction of head to tail. Tail to head stroking can lift up scales and permanently, severely injure the animal. No head, tail, or stomach touching, and no grabbing, poking, or holding is to be done by guests. IF YOU DON'T SPEAK UP FOR THE ANIMAL, NO ONE WILL. Make sure the animal is always comfortable and not being violated. No one likes fingers poking sensitive areas, and no one wants to be violated. If a guest should come running at you and you need to get the animal out of harm's way, move your body (turn away) rather than quickly move the animal. Animals have been known to bite to hold on if they feel unsecure, not to intentionally harm you, but to make sure they are not going to fall.

Honduran Milksnake

Range: South America (Honduras, Nicaragua, NE Costa Rica) Habitat: Low to mid-elevation leaf litter in rainforests, river valleys, open grasslands and mountains Threats: Roads, deforestation, Hhuman misidentification of species (Coral snake) Status: Not listed Predators: Humans, birds of prey, wild felids Diet: carnivore-small animals (mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds) Zoo diet: mice, chicks Snake jaws do not "unhinge;" see picture right. Constrictors slowly tighten their coils around prey until its lungs can no longer bring in air and the prey is asphyxiated. Crushing their prey into oblivion would create sharp bone fragments that could destroy a snake's internal organs. Snakes can open their mouths to swallow prey that is 4-5x the size of their head and/or roughly the size of the thickest part of their body.

Image (binary/octet-stream)

Honduran Milksnake

Size: 3-6+', avg 2.8 lbs Activity: Nocturnal (summer), diurnal Social structure: Solitary Reproduction: Oviparous; communal nesting sites, incubation temperature determines sex of hatchlings (cooler-female, hotter-male), hatchlings shed 5-10 days after hatching Defense mechanisms: Batesian Mimicry (looks similar to venomous coral snake), danger colors, hiding, hissing, biting, shaking tail in leaves to sound like a rattlesnake, musking  

Fun facts: Milksnakes were most often seen by humans in and around barns. They were thought to be drinking milk from the cows' udders in the barns and pastures, hence the name. One of the widest distributions of snake species in the Americas There are 17 types (regional subspecies?) of milksnakes, 10 of which are found in the United States

Resources

http://rosamondgiffordzoo.org/assets/uploads/animals/pdf/HonduranMilkSnake.pdf https://seaworld.org/Animal-Info/Animal-Bytes/Reptiles/Honduran-Milksnake Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium education handbook   similar snakes