good idea or not

[greene]

im going to be going out west(Montana) next week and i was thinking about catching a garter out there preferably a plains or terrestrial garter. would it be bad if it escaped in Wisconsin? should i just stick with the species that live by me?

[ProXimuS]

Are you sure those don't already live in your area? If you can find out which are native there, you might be ok....

[greene]

i dont believe either of them live in my area

[chris-uk]

im going to be going out west(Montana) next week and i was thinking about catching a garter out there preferably a plains or terrestrial garter. would it be bad if it escaped in Wisconsin? should i just stick with the species that live by me?
No worse than if any of our snakes escaped and got into the local ecosystem. Not many wild garters around here.

I'd just say that if you are catching and keeping any snake you have a duty of care to that snake to ensure that it is kept safe and secure - which means it shouldn't be able to escape. Sure, you can't plan for all eventualities but you set things up as best you can.

[Didymus20X6]

Looks like Wisconsin already has T. Radix. Not sure about T. Elegans, though.

[Didymus20X6]

"No worse than if any of our snakes escaped and got into the local ecosystem. Not many wild garters around here."

With one small caveat: there aren't any breeding populations of thamnophis in the UK. However, there are breeding populations of various other thamnophis species in Wisconsin. An escaping elegans could end up contributing to the gene pools of other species. But I would think that the risks are minimal.

[kibakiba]

It can introduce new pathogens and such. One escaped garter could, technically, ruin the lives of other garter snakes. I'm sure Steve will have something to say about it and can go into better detail. He knows more about this stuff than I do.

[greene]

ok sounds like i better not catch one then

[mb90078]

Just make sure they don't escape...people buy non-native to local area species every day.

[guidofatherof5]

I didn't look at the complete article but did see, T.butleri (Butler garter), T.sirtalis (Easter garter), T.radix (Plains garter) on the list.
Good article with a map showing the location they are found in.
http://www.uncledavesenterprise.com/file/wisconsin/snakes/Snakes%20of%20Wisconsin.pdf

[greene]

i have a book just like that article