As Amy Lee nearly pees herself with excitement, we learn something very important today… that this Mark Trail talks to animals!! Dr. Doolittle I presume!! This was promised earlier in the description of the Trail makeover, and well, here it is! Does Cherry know this? Or is this a deep secret? He certainly came clean with Amy and Bill, and they didn’t seem the slightest bit put off by it.

Today’s Nature lesson:

Rat Snakes, are members – along with kingsnakes, milk snakes, vine snakes and indigo snakes – of the subfamily Colubrinae of the family Colubridae. They are medium to large constrictors and are found throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere. They feed primarily on rodents. Many species make attractive and docile pets and one, the corn snake, is one of the most popular reptile pets in the world.  As with all snakes, they can be defensive when approached too closely, handled, or restrained, but bites are not serious. Like nearly all colubrids, rat snakes pose no threat to humans. Rat snakes were long believed to be completely nonvenomous, but recent studies have shown that some Old World species do possess small amounts of venom, though the amount is negligible relative to humans.