Balamkú Cave in Southeast Mexico Attracts Blanchard's Milk Snakes

Summary: Balamkú Cave, with ancient Mayan relics accessed since 2018, in southeast Mexico attracts Blanchard's milk snakes and three venomous coral snake species.

Guillermo de Anda, Great Maya Aquifer Project director and National Institute of Anthropology and History investigator, with ritual objects discovered in southeastern Mexico's Balamkú Cave; photo by Karla Ortega, Great Mayan Aquifer Project: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, via Facebook March 5, 2019, 4:05 p.m.

Blanchard's milk snakes and three venomous coral snake species historically and traditionally act as unofficial guards in southeastern Mexico to the Balamkú Cave, whose abundant artifacts archaeologists officially applauded March 4, 2019.

Guillermo de Anda, Great Maya Aquifer Project director and National Institute of Anthropology and History investigator, became in 2018 the third discoverer of the Balamkú Cave. The namesake Balamkú Cave of Maya jaguar gods conceals, under the eighth- to 13th-century city of Chichén Itzá, ceramic decorated plates, food-grinders, incense burners and vases. Area resident Luis Un, now 68 years old, and local farmers of the Yucatán Peninsula, Campeche state, discovered Balamkú Cave in 1966 and directed archaeologists there.

Aquarchaeologist and archaeoastronomer Víctor Segovia Pinto's (Nov. 21, 1925-Dec. 7, 1995) National Institute of Anthropology and History report elaborated little after examining and sealing Balamkú Cave.

Chichén Itzá (from chi', "mouth"; ch'en, "well"; its, "sorcerer"; and ha, "water") residents find Blanchard's milk snakes and three venomous coral snake species around Balamkú Cave.

De Anda team members gained entrance after a four-day wait for the reptilian guard to go and after six-hour purification rituals grounded in indigenous Maya culture. Non-venomous Blanchard's milk snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum blanchardi) and venomous Central America (Micrurus nigrocinctus), Mayan (Micrurus hippocrepis) and variable (Micrurus diastema) coral snakes hover around Chichén Itzá. Red bands between black bands versus yellow bands between black bands respectively identify venomous Central America, Mayan and variable coral snakes versus non-venomous Blanchard's milk snakes.

Blanchard's milk snakes, as Colubridae (from Latin coluber, "serpent"; and Greek -ειδής, -eidés, "-like") family non-venomous constrictor members, juggle no fixed, hollow fangs with paralyzing venom.

Blanchard's milk snakes, unlike venomous coral snake species in the Elapidae (from Greek λοπις, lopis, "[fish] scale") family, keep boa constrictor-like muscles under shiny, smooth scales.

Twelve-plus-year life cycles lead mature females to mate in May and June and lay 10-plus-egg clutches in June and July for incubation in July and August. Female Blanchard's milk snakes, scientifically named Lampropeltis triangulum blanchardi (from Greek λαμπρός, lamprós, "bright" and πέλτη, péltē, "rimless leather shield"; and Latin "three-cornered"), manage September hatchings. Frank Blanchard's (Dec. 19, 1888-Sept. 22, 1937) namesakes net black heads, white upper neck and black lower neck bands and 15-plus annuli (from Latin ānnulī, "rings").

Blanchard's milk snakes, outlined by Laurence Stuart (1907-May 28, 1983), observe 35.83- to 42.13-inch (91- to 107-centimeter) head-body, 7.09- to 8.27-inch (18- to 21-centimeter) tail lengths.

Blanchard's milk snakes possess 208-plus ventral (from Latin ventrālis, "of or pertaining to the belly") and 57-plus caudal (from Latin caudālis, "pertaining to the tail") scales.

Blanchard's milk snakes queue up 21 and 19 dorsal (from Latin dorsālis, "of or pertaining to the back") scales, at head's lengths from heads and vents. Their juvenile versus mature forest- and grassland-based diets respectively require crickets, earthworms, insects and slugs versus eggs, fish, frogs, lizards, small birds and mammals, and snakes. Venomous coral snake species survive amid dried vegetation similar to that where Frederick McMahon Gaige (July 3, 1890-Oct. 20, 1976) saw Blanchard's milk snakes in 1930.

Blanchard's milk snakes on the Valladolid trail and three venomous coral snake species tell academic and non-academic travelers where to turn for Chichén Itzá's Balamkú Cave.

Lampropeltis triangulum blanchardi (left); illustration by Barbara Duperron/Michigan Science Art: USARK -- United States Association of Reptile Keepers @UnitedStatesAssociationOfReptileKeepers, via Facebook July 14, 2013

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Guillermo de Anda, Great Maya Aquifer Project director and National Institute of Anthropology and History investigator, with ritual objects discovered in southeastern Mexico's Balamkú Cave; photo by Karla Ortega, Great Mayan Aquifer Project: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, via Facebook March 5, 2019, 4:05 p.m., @ https://www.facebook.com/INAHmx/photos/a.129835970429377/2144111865668434/

illustration by Barbara Duperron/Michigan Science Art: USARK -- United States Association of Reptile Keepers @UnitedStatesAssociationOfReptileKeepers, via Facebook July 14, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=481820608566564&l=3c41e3a111

For further information:

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Available @ https://granacuiferomaya.org/2019/03/04/balamku-el-santuario-subterraneo-de-chichen-itza-una-exploracion-del-gran-acuifero-maya-%EF%BB%BF/

"Blanchards Milksnake." SnakeEstate.
Available @ https://www.snakeestate.com/milksnakes/blanchards-milksnake/

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Available @ https://phys.org/news/2019-03-mexican-experts-cave-chichen-itza.html

Edwards, Charlotte. 5 March 2019. "Lost and Found: Sealed Maya Ritual Cave That Was 'Opening to the Underworld' Uncovered After Being Untouched for 1,000 Years - And Is Filled with Spooky Relics." The Sun > Science.
Available @ https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/8563177/sealed-maya-ritual-cave-untouched-for-1000-years-was-opening-to-the-underworld-and-is-filled-with-spooky-relics/

Hacienda Chichen Resort. "Yucatan Snakes: Venomous Snakes Found in Chichen Itza." Yucatan Adventure.
Available @ http://www.yucatanadventure.com.mx/Yucatan-snakes.htm

Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. 5 March 2019. 4:05 p.m. "#Fotogalería. Especialistas del proyecto del #INAH Gran Acuífero #Maya (GAM), a través de su línea de estudio #ChichénItzá Subterráneo, han documentado uno de los hallazgos más importantes en la #historia de la #investigación de esta antigua ciudad maya. . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/INAHmx/photos/a.129835970429377/2144111865668434/

Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. 5 March 2019. 7:04 a.m. "#Fotogalería. Especialistas del proyecto del #INAH Gran Acuífero #Maya (GAM), a través de su línea de estudio #ChichénItzá Subterráneo, han documentado uno de los hallazgos más importantes en la #historia de la #investigación de esta antigua ciudad maya. . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/INAHmx/photos/a.129835970429377/2144227645656856/

National Geographic @natgeo. 4 March 2019. "More than 150 ritual objects -- which hold clues to the rise and fall of the ancient Maya -- were accidentally discovered in a cave system in Mexico." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/natgeo/posts/10156280066303951

Ríos Meneses, Miriam Beatriz. "Víctor Segovia Pinto (1925-1995)." Estudios de Cultura Maya XX (1999): 501-504.
Available @ https://www.revistas-filologicas.unam.mx/estudios-cultura-maya/index.php/ecm/article/view/466/462

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Stuart, L.C. 1935. "Studies on Neotropical Colubrinae V. A New Snake of the Genus Lampropeltis From Yucatan." Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, no. 309: 1-6. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press.
Available @ https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/56748/OP309.pdf

USARK -- United States Association of Reptile Keepers. 14 July 2013. "Scale pattern and color in Lampropeltis triangulum subspecies. From left to right: Blanchard's Milk snake (L. t. blanchardi). . . . Copyright holder: Michigan Science Art." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=481820608566564&l=3c41e3a111

Zraick, Karen. 6 March 2019. "'The Place Is Extraordinary': Well-Preserved Artifacts Are Found Under Maya Ruins." The New York Times > Science.
Available @ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/science/chichen-itza-mexico-mayan.html