SirtalisSerendipity
05-30-2012, 04:43 PM
Hi!
I have had a fascination with garter snakes since 2009, on my grandparents' property in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan, catching T. butleri, T. sirtalis sirtalis, and the occasional Storeria dekayi or Storeria occipitomaculata. One of my fondest memories was waking up one morning, and finding my low red flame looking a lot thinner, and with 11 cute little neonates in the cage. Not long after, a Dekay's Brown Snake had 10 babies, and a Red-bellied snake had 9. I was sad when I had to let them go, but the memory will last forever. Another great experience was rescuing a Prairie Kingsnake in Missouri from some plastic netting in a big field near my neighborhood this spring. My guess is that it tried to burrow under the netting, and got its head stuck, and while struggling, got itself more tangled. When we found it, it was very weak, probably from lack of oxygen. We brought it home. While I held it, my mom cut it free; it was hard due to it being embedded in its scales. We put it in a cage to recover, it ironically had held my first garter snakes from 3 years before. We got up the next morning to find that it was healthy enough to have pushed the lid off and crawled out. I wish it the best, wherever it may be. More recently, I helped my neighbor catch an ENORMOUS yellow-bellied racer that was in his yard.
Well that sums up my experience with snakes up until now; I hope to find more when i move to michigan this summer.
Gavin
:)
I have had a fascination with garter snakes since 2009, on my grandparents' property in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan, catching T. butleri, T. sirtalis sirtalis, and the occasional Storeria dekayi or Storeria occipitomaculata. One of my fondest memories was waking up one morning, and finding my low red flame looking a lot thinner, and with 11 cute little neonates in the cage. Not long after, a Dekay's Brown Snake had 10 babies, and a Red-bellied snake had 9. I was sad when I had to let them go, but the memory will last forever. Another great experience was rescuing a Prairie Kingsnake in Missouri from some plastic netting in a big field near my neighborhood this spring. My guess is that it tried to burrow under the netting, and got its head stuck, and while struggling, got itself more tangled. When we found it, it was very weak, probably from lack of oxygen. We brought it home. While I held it, my mom cut it free; it was hard due to it being embedded in its scales. We put it in a cage to recover, it ironically had held my first garter snakes from 3 years before. We got up the next morning to find that it was healthy enough to have pushed the lid off and crawled out. I wish it the best, wherever it may be. More recently, I helped my neighbor catch an ENORMOUS yellow-bellied racer that was in his yard.
Well that sums up my experience with snakes up until now; I hope to find more when i move to michigan this summer.
Gavin
:)