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Western Yellow-Bellied Racer
On Monday, while prepping a country road for paving, one of my crews unearthed a hibernating Western Yellow-Bellied Racer.
We were using the grader to scrape shoulders which have accumulated quite a bit of dirt and vegetation over the winter. The little guy appeared to have moved into a gopher hole made in this built up material.
Anyway, he's about 35" long and is a nice light blue color with a bright yellow belly. Outside temperatures are still dropping into the high 30's low 40's at night so being early morning, he was extremely sluggish after being exposed.
A quick examination showed that he had several potentially broken ribs. I set him up in a sterilite file box in my office until I could take him to our vet after work. She confirmed the broken ribs.
I have set him up in a quarantine cage at home and am slowly warming him up but keeping him in a darkened cage far away from any vibrations or foot traffic. I have not handled him since Monday nights but he has proven to be quite tractable. The plan is to get him nursed back to health.
After discussing his rehab with a local wildlife hospital, I received conflicting opinions regarding releasing him back into the wild. At this point, the idea is to get him properly rehabilitated then re-solicit some additional opinions from people more qualified than I to make this decision.
Once I get him eating again, I will snap some pictures.
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