To answer both your recent posts (139 and 141) on this thread — and thanks BTW for the “reasonable” discussion and ideas — there seem to be some here with extreme positions on both sides — imagine that on an Internet forum!!!
We are a bit OT, but, WTH, it is my thread. :-)
I assume the rubbing alcohol or vinegar works well from a taste / smell standpoint, given how strongly snakes depend on their tongues to sense their environment. Vinegar to a snake might be like Mace or a skunk to you or me, in terms of a repellent effect.
Then again, MY prey (fish) are quite sensitive to taste / smell, too. Catfish especially - I’ve read of sensitivities of one part per 10 billion parts of water, for catfish. So, the odds are that if I squirt Mr. Copperhead as he swims up to me, my next move is probably to pack up my gear and move to the other side of the pond — and hope Mr. Copperhead did not have the same idea.
As for wanting that spot, in some instances there is quite a bit of “cover”, nearby, so your thought of a clutch of eggs nearby is possible. However, there might be another explanation. You seem to have significant expertise, so I’d be interested in your take:
My experience is that snakes (even of the same species) can vary wildly in temperament, and (back from my keeper-of-pet-snake-days) even in what I guess I’d call “learning ability”. My brother had a friend with a 7 ft.+ rat snake that would follow him (the friend), but only him, around the house: Presumably the snake was hoping for a meal or maybe a warm spot to coil around. This snake was totally docile. I myself had a very “friendly” 5 ft.[?] yellow rat snake that did not follow people, but if set in my lap on a cool evening, would coil around my neck and just stay there for hours, while I studied or did homework. (Occasionally he’d get a little too enthusiastic, so I’d then have to unwind him and put him back in his 40 gal aquarium/cage!) This snake and a few others I had in my younger years could essentially be taught to eat from the keeper’s hand.
Anyway, my theory is that perhaps at a body of (fresh) water that gets considerable and regular fishing pressure, the snakes may “learn” that the anglers sometimes generate “food” (anything from live bait that is lost off a hook, to small sunfish*), and said food is often injured and an easy meal. ALSO, since most fishermen/women are going to retreat from the snake, some snakes “learn” that, too. (Don’t get me wrong, my experience is that most snakes will retreat from the fisherman/woman, but some don’t, especially at this one large pond I frequent the most.)
* “Small”. In the one instance I described, Mr. Copperhead was clearly after a meal, and could not be persuaded otherwise, even though there’s no way he could ingest a 7” long bluegill.
Funny story (for me, anyway.) One early evening last year, a small water snake, maybe 2’ long, swam up near to me & hung around a bit. I’m pretty sure it was not a copperhead, but the lighting wasn’t the best. Since I wasn’t absolutely sure the snake was non-venomous, I tossed a couple mud-clods near it: It eventually finally swam off. For whatever reason it swam into more open water. Big mistake. “SPWOOOSH!” Again, the lighting wasn’t the best, but I think a big channel catfish got the snake...
Snakes are not the stupid, pea-brained creatures they’re made out to be.
Finding food is an intensive, expensive proposition for them.
All the effort to *try* to catch food costs them in reserved energy, even those that are primarily ambush predators.
That is also why most of the myths surrounding them are just that, myths.
Snakes don’t have endless resources to waste on anything but hunting to survive.
“Chasing people” is counter to their entire being.
It would expend energy that they would really seek to conserve.
[unless it’s a Mamba] :D
It is entirely likely that some can learn, by association, that guys fishing means an easy meal.
Imagine all the lovely smells of bloodied nightcrawlers permeating the water, for instance.
I like empiric evidence and will offer some, from my own observations.
My snakes “know” me, both as the source of their food and as someone they trust to not harm them.
Very simple associations.
However, Pinky, the traveling boa, has gone far beyond such basic things.
In the summer, if I walk by his house wearing my usual slop-around-house clothes, he will acknowledge me but calmly so.
If I walk by his house wearing my ‘biker clothes’, he gets very excited and active, going to great extremes to make me notice him and he starts pushing his snout at the places on his door where the latches are, obviously “asking” to come out.
Why?
He has learned by association [just like dogs and other “evolved” animals do] that the biker clothes means I *might* be taking him with me.
He actually loves being out with people.
If I am taking him, I open his door and lay his backpack down and he instantly crawls inside and curls up, waiting for me to zip it closed and sling him on my back.
For the rest of the day, this repeats.
We stop, he crawls out.
When I’m ready to leave one place to go to another, he dutifully goes back into his pack.
He has learned something, remembers what he’s learned and associates and anticipates certain visual cues with that knowledge.
Catfish, being what they are [hillbilly sharks] for all I know, would be intrigued by vinegar.
They are a weird animals.
My dad stocked the pond above my house with them and they ate every living thing they could reach until there was nothing left but them.
I really miss all the ducks, frogs, salamanders, newts and turtles that *used* to be there.
:-\
Snakes can eat things bigger than you think.
Should’ve just given him the Bluegill.
:)