When Grass Snakes shed their skins...

OK, you guys are probably going to say "Huh, we see these all the time," in a dismissive way, but I was fascinated the other day, to discover a complete cast-off grass snake skin, in one of "my" gardens.

 

 

Here it is, I moved it onto the grass in order to get a better photo, as it's translucent,

 

it's about 2' long, and must have been shed fairly shortly before I found it, because they are fragile, and it would have disintegrated in no time.

The detail was incredible - you could literally see every scale, and you could clearly see the difference between the smaller scales on the back, and the longer ones underneath, where it "walks".

I'm sure you know that snakes, not having any legs, "walk" on their ribs, and they use the rough edges of those lower scales to get a grip on whatever they are walking on.

You can even see his little eyes!!

Isn't that astonishing??!

Hilariously, this skin was found on the decking next to the stream, so it almost looks as though the snake took off its skin, before going in for a swim...

I had thought this was a fairly large one, but having done a cursory internet search, they get quite a lot bigger than this: and apparently female grass snakes shed their skins before laying eggs, so maybe there will be a new generation of little grass snakes, in a couple of months.

I shall keep a careful look-out for them!

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