Brown Snakes

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Hello Tonya,

 

I suggest you would probably find it a lot easier to test this with a rubber snake from a toy shop or KMart or wherever. At least it is a good starting point. Many years ago I wrote in CBN about a whole flock of birds mobbing a baseball glove, I believe because of its very reptilian appearance.

 

Philip

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Tonya Haff [
Sent: Tuesday, 30 August 2011 6:03 PM
To: canberrabirds chatline
Subject: [canberrabirds] Brown Snakes

Hi all,

This is related to birds, in a somewhat indirect way.... I was wondering if any of you might have a dead brown snake sitting around in your freezer that you'd be willing to share with me. I realize this might sound ridiculous, sometimes one finds freshly dead animal specimens, and puts them in the freezer, for donation to museums and the like in the future.  So, I thought it was worth it to ask.

I'm asking because, along with another PhD student here at ANU, I'm interested in doing model predator presentations to white-browed scrubwrens. Specifically, I'm interested to see if scrubwrens have different alarm calls for snakes, compared to some other predators or threats that might be found near nests.  

If you have any specimens or thoughts on where to look, I'd really appreciate it!

Cheers,

Tonya

--
Tonya Haff
PhD candidate
Evolution, Ecology and Genetics
Research School of Biology
Australian National University
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