On an unusually warm day in mid-March 2006 I took my students on a hike at the University of Tennessee Arboretum. As we walked down a trail I heard one of the kids yell, "Snake!" I couldn't believe a snake would be out that early in the year, but sure enough, there was this huge Black Rat Snake sunning on a small tree sapling.
"Red on black, venom lack; Red on yellow, kill a fellow." This poem can help you remember how to tell the difference between a non-venomous Scarlet Milksnake and the venomous Coral Snake. When the black bands touch red bands, the snake is harmless. However, birds and other predators that may want to eat these snakes don't know the difference. I took this photo at the Living Desert Museum in Palm Desert, California.
One of the students also found this tiny brown snake curled up on the ground during the March Arboretum hike. It was too cold to move at first, but the warmth of the child's hand soon invigorated the snake and it crawled away into the leaves.
