Natural History of the Racer Coluber constrictorFitch, Henry S. (Henry Sheldon)
Science
Natural History of the Racer Coluber constrictor
Fitch, Henry S. (Henry Sheldon)
Racer snake
As might have been anticipated, different species of prey were not
utilized by the racers to the same extent throughout the snakes'
season of activity. Grasshoppers, for instance, fluctuated from a low
of 25.3 per cent (frequency) in the May sample to a high of 41.4 per
cent in the September sample. Availability of prey, rather than any
change of preference on the part of the racer, explains this trend.
Thus, the locust, _Arphia simplex_, which, unlike most local
grasshoppers, overwinters in the adult stage, is most prominent in the
food in May, represented by 15.7 per cent, but it decreases
progressively to a low of 1.8 per cent in September. The common
grasshoppers of the genus _Melanoplus_ show just the opposite trend,
increasing during the summer, from a low of 2.62 per cent in May (when
all are nymphs and most are too small to constitute a meal worthy of a
racer's attention) to a high of 31.5 per cent in September. Mammals
are best represented in the food in May, when they collectively
comprise nearly 30 per cent of the items taken, and they are
progressively less well represented as the summer advances. Both
_Microtus_ and _Peromyscus_ conform to this trend, but the relative
numbers of _Peromyscus_ rise again abruptly in October. The general
trend may be explained by the fact that in May most small mammal
populations have a high proportion of young of the year, and these
young are especially vulnerable to predation by the snakes. Also,
insects in general are less available in spring, and this may force
the racers to utilize vertebrates to a greater extent than at other
seasons. Actually, the seasonal changes in food sources are not
especially striking, and it seems that each important prey species is
utilized more or less throughout the season of the racer's activity.
Table 5. Distribution by Months of Various Categories of Prey Items
Recorded From Blue Racers From Kansas, Chiefly From the Reservation
and Rockefeller Tract
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