2019 Minnesota Herping! Lots of pics!

[Faunaofthenorth]

Hello everyone, it’s been a very long time since I have been here... Nick by the way... glad to be back! Anyways, years ago I posted pictures and videos of my old 56”+ adult female Eastern Garter Snake... well... it has been at least 11 years since I had her, but I have recently caught her offspring and they all have gigantism... average adult female length of 3-4+ feet. I had two females give birth to a total of 125 babies... all above average length of about 5-7”. Also, some new color variations... as well as a new northern green morph which all of the green female babies are also bright green to olive drab in color... she also produced some “pink lemonade” colored babies... I am calling the new morph the “Aurora Borealis” morph!... Also found a half-albino Northern Redbelly Snake this year... here are some pics of this years summer of ‘19 herping!....
15186 1518715188
1518915190

[Faunaofthenorth]

15191151921519415195

[Faunaofthenorth]

1519615197151981519915200

[Faunaofthenorth]

1520115202152031520415205

[Faunaofthenorth]

15206
https://youtu.be/x_OhG7eaLK0152071520815209

[Faunaofthenorth]

1521015211152121521315214

[guidofatherof5]

Glad to have you back. Great photos.

[Faunaofthenorth]

Thanks my friend! I have been literally exploring every inch of Minnesota and trying to find everything haha. The locality where those larger garters were from seems to be an area in where the large females seem to occupy the apex predator level in this area.... not very many predators. I found three major hibernation sites with close proximity to each other aswell as about two dozen abandoned ant hill hibernation sites for rebdellies, baby garters, etc...
When I get home from the Twin Cities I will post pictures of the green morph female, some of her babies and the half albino redbelly!

[Zarah H]

Thats very cool! Here in Indiana there's not many places to go herping. There's an old bike trail about 1/2 a mile from where I live, surrounded by miles of wooded area.
(I very rarely go there because of many homeless people in a set-up camp in the middle of the woods, and they're pretty sketchy)

[Eddie]

Welcome back and nice pics!! Any pics of the half albino?

[Faunaofthenorth]

152251522315224
Here is an unfortunate casualty of the golf course I work at... this was a rather large female half albino that now seems to be more common up here. I contacted the DNR after finding this second one and they are very interested in these little white-bellied Redbelly snakes... I will post a pic soon of my litte male once he comes out of his little burrow.. I want to breed him to a gold phase Redbelly...

[Faunaofthenorth]

Thats very cool! Here in Indiana there's not many places to go herping. There's an old bike trail about 1/2 a mile from where I live, surrounded by miles of wooded area.
(I very rarely go there because of many homeless people in a set-up camp in the middle of the woods, and they're pretty sketchy)
Ah yeah... we have some meth-crazed homeless camp areas that I definitely avoid... things can be tough way up here lol
“Tin Flipping!” :)

[Eddie]

Looks like a normal northern brown snake to me

[Faunaofthenorth]

Looks like a normal northern brown snake to me
I am certain it is a redbelly snake. It has every trait that a Brown snake does not... three neck spots, two parallel gray margin stripes along the white venter... which is not present in brown snakes. Brown snakes do not live where I am at. They are only found at the bottom of the state and I am an hour and a half from Canada. These ones have a trait where they do not have pigment on their underside except for a little pink or orange here and there... The dead one in the picture was migrating next to another redbelly that was a dark red phase... they got hit and killed with a buffalo blower on the cart path that one of my coworkers was using.

[Faunaofthenorth]

Today I was at the MN reptile show and the DNR was there with the herpetological society and I showed them the redbellies and they confirmed that they are anerythristic redbelly snakes! I was wrong thinking they were albino but still really cool! They stated that they find them very rarely, but it seems there is a larger frequency of them where I live. They were interested if I can breed it successfully with the gold phase.

[Eddie]

Awesome.Good luck with the breeding project!!

[Faunaofthenorth]

Yeah dude thanks! Redbellies are often difficult to care for in captivity. They often get highly stressed and refuse food, luckily an experienced hognose breeder taught me some tricks and so far my gold phase female has eaten and same with my anerytheristic male... if they mate, hypothetically, I am still worried about getting the little tiny babies to eat.... even with tiny chopped up worms....
anyone have any redbelly husbandry tips??