Hello to you Mrs. Beck's 4th grade class. I'm sorry I haven't posted to the blog in a while. It makes me happy to hear from Mrs. Beck that you ask about me a lot to see how I'm doing. I'm doing very well, I've grown a bit since you last saw pictures of me, I'm now about 56 inches (4 and a half feet) long, and just got done eating another large rat. It's hard for Chris and Deb to measure me; they have to hold a string along my body while I wiggle and squiggle, and measure how long the string was.
Every animal, even growing snakes need to drink water. This is a rare picture Chris took of me, because most of the time, I try to drink when nobody is looking. It hearkens back to my instinct to only eat or drink when I am safely away from other potential predators, because I am most vulnerable when its time to chow down or re-hydrate.
Here is a picture of my friend Winston trying to sleep in his log in the afternoon. Because reptiles like Winston and I are cold blooded, during the winter time we like to sleep in so to conserve our energy. Chris and Deb help us to stay a bit more active though by placing heat lamps over our enclosures to keep us warm.
Here is a picture of Chris and I, it's a self portrait. It's only because we are good friends that we'd pose for a picture like this. You kids should never pose with a snake (especially a constrictor) you don't know around your neck. They might accidentally squeeze your neck too tightly so you couldn't breath. They wouldn't do it to be mean, only because it's the only way they could defend themselves, or to save themselves from falling off. Even though we are friends, Chris still has to be careful with me, because I could do the same by accident. Chris has done his homework, and is quite knowledgeable about me and my kind, and he knows if something happened it wouldn't be because I was trying to be mean, I was only being me, a constrictor.
And now for some neat science news! Above is an illustration about one of my ancient ancestors, Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the biggest snake to ever live. His fossil remains were recently found in a open-pit mine in Columbia, South America. He was as long as a School Bus (45 feet long) and weighed 1,000 - 2,500 pounds when he lived after the extinction of the Dinosaurs 55-60 million years ago. Based on his bone structure, scientists reasoned that he was most like Boa Constrictors and Anicondas in that they squeezed their prey, and they lived and hunted in the water for very big fish, even prehistoric alligators and corcidiles. Isn't that neat?
For more detailed information, ask Mrs. Beck to read you the articles I found this info from:
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/science/article_212205588.shtml
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29014818/
I hope you enjoyed today's entry as much as I enjoyed taking pictures and posting them. Next time I'll post more info about Winston and his ancient ancestors.
Thank you so much for reading and caring about me! it makes me really happy to know people are actually curious about Winston and I.
Until next time,
Be good in class!
Viktor, Winston, Chris & Deb.
