Saturday, October 30, 2010

Checkered Garter Snake

Tadpoles, beware! The snake most seen* in Brewster County (by us since July) is the Checkered Garter Snake (thanks to Joe for ID correction!)... and if you're among "fish, frogs, toads, tadpoles, worms, salamanders" etc, you're likely to be prey!

* For all of the fuss about snakes, we've seen two venomous individuals and closer to 15 non-venomous individuals, more than half being represented by one species; the Black-necked Garter Snake.















This dear little creature was found on October 28th among a tangle of sprinkler control wires in a subterranean cylinder, under a nice little green hatch. Alas, the sprinkler's main control valve was not down there, but the snake sure caused some excitement! Having never handled this species before, I wasn't sure how thrashy it would be (didn't want either of us to get zapped by the wires), but the assumption that it would behave similarly to other small, non-venomous snakes was correct.











Photos by Matt York.

No, it did not try to bite. It simply tried to get away from me, 'musking' all the while. So my hands reeked of snake excement for a while, but the photo-op with the red tongue was completely worth it! For a snake that was barely over one foot long, it sure was smelly.

USE CAUTION AND COMMON SENSE! BE SURE TO POSITIVELY IDENTIFY ANY SNAKE BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO HANDLE IT.
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4 comments:

  1. MWYorkOctober 30, 2010 at 9:14 PM

    'Twas beautiful.
    Carolyn had a couple of older individuals sleeking around in her pond one morning back in the summer.

    Wonderful ornate beings.

    That tongue... seriously,....how nice is that?!

    A nice smile by the handler, too.

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  2. Joseph E. ForksNovember 7, 2010 at 9:40 PM

    Hola,
    The Rattlesnake is Crotalus atrox, Western Diamondback, not a Mojave, and the Garter snake is a checkered, not a black necked :)

    Best
    Joe

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  3. MWYorkNovember 8, 2010 at 7:37 AM

    Joe!

    You are quite right on both accounts.

    Quick and erroneous ID's, due to previous encounters still vivid in the mind led to these errors made and quickly set aside.

    Thanks for the help!

    ReplyDelete
  4. heidiNovember 8, 2010 at 7:47 AM

    Joe, we may need to import you! In both cases, we failed to proof photos against the guide afterward, having gotten as far as 'garter snake' and 'rattlesnake' and relocating them to safety.

    In Matt's defense, he was never around the bolder, darker Western Diamondbacks when I was living in Abilene (and I need to stop my mental default of looking at the tail first; with the blurry bands, I wasn't thinking atrox).

    Thanks for the corrections; we'll try to get the posts sorted out to reflect them soon!

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