Focus on Nature: A Grand Canyon Mini-Adventure

Text by Margie Knickerbocker Photographs by Hal Knickerbocker A rock squirrel defends its underground nest against a bull snake. Common residents of Grand Canyon Village and the North Rim, rock squirrels fearlessly take on skunks and rats as well as snakes. Although they usually feed on nuts, seeds, and berries, they have been seen catching birds.

We are on the South Kaibab Trail, steepest of the maintained trails in the Grand Canyon. Its 6.3-mile length is the shortest distance to the canyon floor. Trudging along, we have no idea what this beautiful day holds in store for us. A tanned, jeans-clad young man in a battered felt hat leads a string of sad-eyed pack mules past us. He grunts a greeting.

The mules plod along, each bowed head following a swishing tail, dark cocoa hides burnished by the sun. Soon our toes begin to throb with the strain of constantly walking downhill. Our knees and the calves of our legs ache. Dusty and hot, we stop at last on a small plateau and reach for our water bottles. The warm liquid soothes our throats. Now a short rest seems in order. Shrugging off our packs, we flex weary muscles and loosen the shirts clinging to our backs. That's when we hear the hissing sound. "Snake!" we think. A subconscious warning tightens the muscles in our stomachs. But no snake appears in the rocky terrain. Have we misinterpreted the sound? Just as we start to relax, strange swishing noises

FOCUS on Nature

and squeaky yelps join the hissing. Curious, camera at the ready, we move toward the sounds. Within a short distance, the mystery is resolved: we stumble onto a classic confrontation between a large bull snake and two small rock squirrels. In a frenzy, the gray-brown squirrels are chasing each other around the coiled snake, their plume-like tails flashing white. Then, one at a time, they begin to dance in and out. The snake raises its head until it is almost a foot above the ground. Suddenly the brown markings blur in a lightning strike. But it misses both scam-pering rodents, and one of the pair darts in to bite the snake; meanwhile its partner loosens the dirt with both front paws, digging furiously, then with a brushing motion flips it at the snake's head as if to blind it. The battle rages for at least five minutes, while the snake's reactions become slower and slower. Yet it refuses to retreat. Instead of taking advantage of the snake's weakening, the squirrels themselves slow down, then stand and stare at the reptile.

Finally they scamper away, leaving the bewildered bull snake to unfrazzle its nerves. A canyon wren's call from deep in the chasm rouses us from our trance, and we become aware that we have been privileged observers of a strange and dramatic episode. And all before noon on our first day in the Grand Canyon.

The fight ends in a draw, with the bull snake lucky to escape with its life. Rock squirrels, sometimes confused with the familiar grayish Abert and Kaibab squirrels, are Arizona's largest ground squirrels. Unlike their fuzzy cousins, rock squirrels do not nest in trees.