Jake's favorite pictures

[Jake]

Hi All,
These a few of my favorite pictures. This first one is "Spot" he has been missing for a month, but we are hoping he comes back.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/spot1.jpg

This was taken at the Narcisse garter snake den in Canada a few years ago
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/Narcisse_snake_den_640.jpg

This is a mating ball from the same place
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/Mating_snakes.jpg



Thanks for looking.
Jake

[Jake]

Here's a couple more

These two snakes think the camera is food:
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/2-curious.jpg

I came across this one in the wild and scared her by accident
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/ready_2_bite.jpg

Jake

[adamanteus]

Excellent photos, Timothy. Where in Canada is the Narcisse snake den?

[Snaky]

Very nice picture's!

[Jake]

Thanks! Narcisse Snake Den is in Manitoba, an hour and a half north of Winnipeg

Check out the website:Province of Manitoba | Manitoba Conservation Wildlife and Ecosystem Protection Branch (http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/wildlife/managing/snakes_status.html)

It is an amazing place! Thousands of garter snakes everywhere. You have to be very careful as you walk around.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/Narcisse_sign.jpg


http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/Narcisse.jpg

[Jake]

There isn't much else in Manitoba so they really embrace the Garter snake. This is a statue they have in the center of town.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/Narcisse_statue.jpg

[adamanteus]

Wow! I never realized! That's a good web site too.

Here's a thought....These snakes follow the same mating regime every year, gathering in huge numbers in the same places. Does anyone know if they suffer heavy predation at these times? It would seem too good an opportunity for a top predator to miss.

[Jake]

Good point. I did see a few that looked like their livers were pecked out. But there are quite a few visitors that come to the dens when they are emerging so maybe that scares off some of bigger birds. I don't know what happens at night??
Jake

[Jake]

Guarding the house

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/DSCN1511.JPG

[drache]

there are two books that have a lot of pics from the Narcisse snake dens:
A Gathering of Garter Snakes, by Bianca Levies
and
The Snake Scientist, by Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop

[Thamnophis]

I know that in the seventies lots of T. sirtalis parietalis were imported from Canada. Dutch reptileshops had thousands of them and they all looked the same.
They were every year available a few weeks after the snakes in Manitoba came out of brumation.
I a sure they were caught overthere.
The number of males was much larger than that of the females.
My first two gartersnakes were from such an import.

Great pics by the way!

I sure hope to go there one time. Manitoba in spring, I mean.

[chris87]

very nice pics mate

[Stefan-A]

Very nice pictures! I'm always very interested in seeing pictures of red-sided garters, especially of those from Manitoba. Happens to be the most likely place of origin of my own garters.

[Gijs & Sabine]

Awesome pics, Jake !! It would be great to go there some day, although I probebly won't survive when I see so much garters together :D

[Jake]

Thanks it was a great trip, and the snakes was the entire purpose of going (there isn't much else up there)

This is a snake fence at the Narcisse garter snake dens that runs for miles. It was put up by volunteers and leads to tunnels under the road. Before thousands of snakes would get hit by cars during their migration...not anymore.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/snake_fence.jpg


Jake

[adamanteus]

I've seen similar work done for toads.

[GarterGuy]

Very cool pics Jake. I sooooo want to hit Narcisse sometime. Was supposed to go there this spring, but money issues prevented it. Maybe next year I hope.
Roy

[drache]

I have this secret fantasy that some of us could meet there some day - the Thamnophis convention

[Jake]

Brand new snakes yesterday! We had 11 unexpected newborns yesterday, what a surprise!

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/DSCN2172_cropped.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//554/medium/DSCN2181.JPG

[drache]

they are so cute!
congratulations

[adamanteus]

Congratulations on your surprise arrivals, Jake. They're lovely!

[Stefan-A]

Congratulations! They look magnificent. :)

[Snaky]

*Envy, envy* Very nice, congrats! :)

[ScimitarX]

Wow,, they are nice babies!! Congrats!!