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
A few records of predation on blue racers by other reptiles on the
Reservation and Rockefeller Tract were obtained. In 25 scats of the
prairie king snake (_Lampropeltis calligaster_), there were 29
vertebrate prey items of which one was a blue racer. On September 15,
1962, an adult male prairie king snake 49-1/2 inches in length was
found to have a 27-inch yearling racer in its stomach. In 254 scats of
the slender glass lizard (_Ophisaurus attenuatus_) vertebrate remains
were rare, but there were scales and bones of one hatchling blue
racer. Among 21 vertebrate prey items in 14 scats of the timber
rattlesnake (_Crotalus horridus_) there were remains of one blue
racer. Among 589 prey items of copperheads there were two juvenal blue
racers (Fitch, 1960:200). In contrast to these scarce records of
racers in the prey of other snakes, there were more frequent records
of the blue racer preying on its own young. The 1008 food items from
479 racer scats contained remains of 16 racers, small young in most
instances.
Raptorial birds are known to be important predators on snakes.
Breckenridge (1944:118) reported finding remains of a blue racer in
the pellet of a marsh hawk (_Circus cyaneus_). Many pellets of the
marsh hawk collected on the Reservation were all found during the
colder half of the year, and they contained no remains of reptiles.
The same seasonal restrictions applied to the many pellets of four
species of owls that were collected, and these also lacked remains of
reptiles. One of the predators whose food habits have been most
thoroughly investigated on the area is the red-tailed hawk (_Buteo
jamaicensis_). Over the period 1955 through 1962, 1131 pellets of
these hawks were collected, many from the Reservation, but more from
localities scattered throughout the eastern one-fourth of Kansas. The
pellets were those of nestlings and fledglings, nearly all collected
from beneath the nests, in late May, June, or early July. Some 49
different nests were represented, and remains of 43 blue racers were
found. In one nest which yielded a total of 191 food items, racer
remains occurred 13 times, but no other nest yielded records of more
than three racers, and some other species of reptiles, notably the
black rat snake (_Elaphe obsoleta_) comprised much more important
components of the food. Since only one meal in 26 contained remains of
racers, it seems that a red-tailed hawk would destroy only a few
racers in the course of a year on its territory of perhaps half a
square mile, and that its predation would not be a major factor in the
racer's ecology.
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