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by Ruggero M. » Mon May 01, 2017 1:17 pm
Ilian Velikov wrote:That's very interesting! I've never seen or heard of it. At first I thought it has to do with the muscle contractions needed for the snake to go backwards into the stone wall but then this would mean that other species would be doing the same and it would have been seen more often.
My theory is that it's a defensive behavior - moving the area with those big spots (which could resemble fake eyes?) while keeping the head completely still to confuse a predator and take the attention away from the grey head. The stones in najadum habitat are often grey so the head and background neck colour would blend in but the moving spots would stick out.
P. najadum spend a lot of time with their heads and necks sticking out of stones/rocks so this could explain the grey colouration and big (the size of the eye) spots on the first part of the body.
An attractive effect over its preys (lizards)?
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Ruggero M.
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by Ilian Velikov » Mon May 01, 2017 1:20 pm
Ruggero Morimando wrote:An attractive effect over its preys (lizards)?
That's a good theory! It could very well be this.
I'm not sure if the snake from the video started doing this only after it saw the camera man or was doing it before. What is your experience when observing this behavior? Did the snakes you saw knew you were there or not?
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Ilian Velikov
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by Ruggero M. » Mon May 01, 2017 1:26 pm
Ilian Velikov wrote:Ruggero Morimando wrote:An attractive effect over its preys (lizards)?
That's a good theory too! Could be...
I'm not sure if the snake from the video started doing this only after it saw the camera man or was doing it before. What is your experience when observing this behavior? Did the snakes you saw knew you were there or not?
They did the movements independently. They didn't notice my presence at all: they did the movements during slow crawling among and over stones or during otherwise totally motionless basking. I'm sure they did not notice my presence: as soon they did they disappeared...
And the type of waving movements resemble the ones of snakes which use their tail as lure...
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Ruggero M.
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by Ilian Velikov » Mon May 01, 2017 1:57 pm
Ruggero Morimando wrote:They did the movements independently. They didn't notice my presence at all: they did the movements during slow crawling among and over stones or during otherwise totally motionless basking. I'm sure they did not notice my presence: as soon they did they disappeared... And the type of waving movements resemble the ones of snakes which use their tail as lure...
Knowing this, your theory makes more sense then defense. Thanks!
It's an interesting behavior that deserves a closer look.
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Ilian Velikov
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by Niklas Ban » Wed May 03, 2017 7:22 pm
oh... I want to visit greece so bad.. thank you very much for sharing.. no I have very bad wanderlust.
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Niklas Ban
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by Bobby Bok » Mon May 08, 2017 6:24 pm
Love those xanthina close-ups Jürgen!
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Bobby Bok
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