The smell of macaroni [part 1: snakes]

Q. Are garter snakes attracted to the smell of macaroni?

A. Probably not, in general – though things can change dramatically if it’s coated in frog skin mucus.

The picture shows a checkered garter snake (Thamnophis marcianus) enthusiastically attacking a macarono which has a light coating of frog skin mucus sauce.

See:Identification and Characterization of New Protein Chemoattractants in the Frog Skin Secretome* (in: Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, 5, November 2006, 2114-2123)

Note: * “The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked ‘advertisement’ in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.”

Coming soon: The smell of macaroni [part 2]