"Rev Dr" Lenny Flank
Posts: 2560
Joined: Feb. 2005
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I'm quite skeptical of this report, since there are no other snakes reported to have this ability to rapidly change skin color. But then, I suppose it's not impossible, since snakes are descended from lizards, and many lizards can indeed alter their pigment cells to change color (not, as is usually thought, for camouflage, but more often for either temperature control -- darker when cold, lighter when hot -- or for sexual or territorial display).
There are of course snakes that change their colors as they get older (black rat snakes, for instance, are grey with black splotches when born), but I'm not aware of any that are known to rapidly change their skin color in response to immediate environmental factors, a la lizards. Since snakes are very secretive and are seldom seen in the open, and most of them are nocturnal, and all of them (well, nearly all of them) have atrociously bad eyesight, I'm not sure what the purpose of such a talent would be.
So I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude to this report.
;>
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Editor, Red and Black Publishers
www.RedandBlackPublishers.com
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The entire body of supporting evidence seems to be that someone put the snake into a bucket, checked back later, and the snake looked white. No subsequent tests performed, at least none are mentioned. No description of the bucket color, the lighting or other observation circumstances, the number of people making the observaton, etc. You'd think even for a newspaper article, someone would have done at least a *little* more checking. The result is an awful lot of conclusion based on a mighty flimsy allegation.