I was out hiking Ed Levin park the other day, the park that ascends Monument peak above Milpitas. Near the bottom of the hill on the way back, I discovered a freshly-shed snakeskin.
I thought at first that it was a rattlesnake because the head looked triangular. But the tail was not that of a rattler; therefore a gopher snake.
When I inspected the head end more closely, I saw that the triangular shape was just the way the skin had fallen, not an intrinsic shape.
I pulled the skin back from the hole, and saw that it had been telescoped. What had happened was that the snake had used the edge of the hole as a scraper, left the skin behind and wriggled on down into the underground.
Because the shed skin was blocking the hole, either the snake was still in there, or there must have been another exit. My money is on the snake still being at home.
Cool!
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