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non toxic to humans, but what about snakes
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by natedog08 on October 13, 2006
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alright, Im going to cut to the chase, I was out herping yesterday and i met another kid my age herping where i usually go. After he caught the snake, he would put his name on the snake with a sharpie! I didnt say anything then because i didnt know if it would hurt the snake or not. He said he had to go home, but i continued to herp. I ended up finding five more snakes with sharpie marks on it. At that time i was going to take the snake home to wash it. But there were so many and most of them different species.
What im trying to ask is a sharpie toxic to snakes???
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RE: non toxic to humans, but what about snakes
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by Cro on October 13, 2006
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Nathan, that is a very interesting question. The ink in a sharpie marker is dissolved in some kind of solvent that evaporates and lets the ink dry.
While a tiny amount of the solvent could possibly make it through a snakes skin, it would probably not be enough to hurt the snake. When the snake sheds its skin the next time, the ink will dissapear along with the shed.
Some scientists use spray paint to mark the rattles on rattlesnakes so that they can identify ones that have captured before. Other herpetologists do things like clipping scales, or branding, or installing pit tags to keep up with snakes they find.
Perhaps you should get a sharpie of a different color from your friends and mark snakes also. It should not hurt the snakes and would be really interesting to see if you catch the same snake more than once. Could be a very good learning experinece. You might even want to use some kind of code for each snake, like 1 stripe, 2 stripes, 3 stripes, etc. That way you might find a snake that has mooved from where you first found it. Sounds like a good science project to me.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: non toxic to humans, but what about snakes
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by natedog08 on October 14, 2006
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sounds like a good idea. I would like to keep up with them in the winter. What i thought to do, was to buy a hide and go seek care bear, Take the chip that is located with the locator thing and somehow put it on the snake. Because i would like to know where they are going in the morning. I found the same snake a couple of times, in the same exact spot, BUT, only in the afternoon. When i look in the morning, hes never there. ive already emplanted the chip on a peice of strong cloth, but i need to find out how to keep it on the snake, any ideas????
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RE: non toxic to humans, but what about snakes
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by Cro on October 14, 2006
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A tiny drop of super glue would probably let you attach something small to a snake without hurting it. Just make sure what ever you attach is not something that will get hung up in rocks and stuff.
I really dont know what the care-bear thing is, so am not sure it would work or not.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: non toxic to humans, but what about snakes
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by Cro on October 14, 2006
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Nathan, Most pit tags for snakes are implanted under the snakes skin, but some radio transmitters are force-fed to snakes. If that chip from the care-bear thing could be coated with say silicone rubber caulk, and force fed to say a garter snake, and was small enough to not block his intestines, you might very well be able to find him untill he pooped out the chip. Is the chip thing small enough that you could get a snake to swallow it?
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: non toxic to humans, but what about snakes
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by natedog08 on October 14, 2006
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not really, because it was enplanted in a little girls toy...lol... The whole idea of the care bear thing is its made so kids can play hide and go seek. one kid hides with the bear, and the other has a radio type thing and it locates and tells the seeker where the kid with the bear goes. So, i took the chip out of each of the toys and emplanted the bear chip on a peice of cloth while the other chip i fused into my G.P.S now, i will know where to find it. IF, i can get it on the snake. Its about 3 cm long and about a mm high. pretty small, but too big for a snake to digest...lol... like to see it poop that thing out... CONSTIPATION!!!! would be funny to watch
and if your wondering why i just about broke the gps to fuse a chip from a little girls toy, it was a very cheep gps, like 10 dollars. It only expanded like 1 kilometer anyway.
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RE: non toxic to humans, but what about snakes
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by Cro on October 15, 2006
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Nathan, it sounds like that transponder from the carebear would work better attached to a box turtle, which would fun to do also. Perhaps you could glue it to a turtles back next spring and track him for a while.
I think that your idea of using that device is a good one. All that is really different is that professional herpetologists would be using more expensive equipment to accomplish the same thing.
You might even talk one of your school science teachers into giving you extra credit if you tracked a turtle that way for a month, and kept logs as to his activity, and write up the results in a paper.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: non toxic to humans, but what about snakes
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by natedog08 on October 15, 2006
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the first question i asked here, was about garters. The same exact day i asked that question, you guys answered, and the same doay you guys answered, i went herping. The next day, i posted again that i didnt find anything, but what i forgot to do, was mention was i found a male box turtle. I brought that in instead. When i brought it in, my science teacher had a female box turtle. Well, they mated and now the female has eggs. I marked the turtle on the shell with a sharpie, and let it go because my science teacher thought it needed to be out in the wild again. I havnt found it yet, but if i do, ill probably do what you suggested.
The funny thing is people are buying devises that are well over 500 dollars to do the same thing that i did for only about 10 dollars....LOL
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