What ecological situation causes western hognose snakes to sometimes become road casualties in cooler climates during morning activity?
Their tendency to bask on roads in the early morning hours to raise body temperature
In regions experiencing cooler temperatures, such as Montana, the western hognose snake exhibits ectothermic behavior essential for achieving optimal operating temperature after the cold night. This often involves utilizing flat, dark surfaces like roads as solar collectors. The text highlights that individuals are sometimes found as road casualties because they engage in basking behavior on these surfaces during the early morning hours to raise their body temperature sufficiently. Since they retreat underground later in the day to maintain thermal balance, observing them requires timing searches to these early morning hours when they are exposed on the surface, which unfortunately also coincides with peak human traffic in some areas.
