The Garter Snake(book)

[guidofatherof5]

I spotted this good deal for this awesome book.
I own it but there may be others that would like to own it.
Here ya go.
Amazon.com: Used and New: The Garter Snakes: Evolution and Ecology (Animal Natural History Series) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0806128208/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used)

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/book6.jpg

[kibakiba]

The snake on the cover looks like Snakey! I never knew he was a star! :D

[RedSidedSPR]

It better be a good book at that retail price!

[guidofatherof5]

The most complete book available. Range maps, photos, description, scale count.
It's the best book I've found for identifying the different species and subspecies.
I found a brand new copy for $15.00. Made a great gift to a local garter snake friend.

[RedSidedSPR]

Wow. All the garter books I've found arent that great... I may get it.

Hmm... My birthday is soon :D

[indigoman]

I totally agree Steve, At that price its a steal!

[guidofatherof5]

I've started an excel spreadsheet containing almost all of the info. from the book.
Plus additional photos.
Udo and Stefan have been lending a hand and have been a great help.
Finishing it will have to wait until things settle down around here.
I plan on making it available to all forum members when it's done.

[RedSidedSPR]

Cool! Can't wait.

[drache]

great project, Steve
can't wait to see

[RicMartin]

Excellent!

[ConcinusMan]

I think that's the outdated one isn't it? Seems to me that I already read that one front to back a dozen times before the 7th grade. Could be mistaken but I think there's a newer one. One written after some actual genetic testing was done of various species/subspecies to find their true relations.

[Mommy2many]

The older versions of written works have great value. Keep that in mind.

[RedSidedSPR]

I think i'll just wait for Steve's.

[Mommy2many]

Good idea.:D
I believe Steve will put alot of effort into making this a resource that you can enjoy.

[RedSidedSPR]

definitely looking for to it

[ConcinusMan]

The older versions of written works have great value. Keep that in mind.

Well of course they do. Gives good perspective on how our understanding of these animals has changed over the years. Just keep in mind when reading this book that a lot of ideas about the relationships between the various species/subspecies have since been proven to be wrong by DNA analysis. They didn't have that at the time and relied on outward appearances/morphological differences and similarities.

We now know that two very different garter snakes with completely different looks, many miles apart (can be on opposite coasts in fact) can be more closely related to one another than very similar snakes living very close to one another. DNA proves it.

For example, we know that all garter snakes are related but one might think that an infernalis is closely related to a SF garter based on location and morphology, but DNA proves that both of these species are fairly distantly related to one another. Each is more closely related to other garters that occur in other parts of the continent, (and look completely different) than they are to each other. There's no way they could have known that without DNA testing, which didn't take place until long after this book was written, so it's mostly speculation in this book.

A good read nonetheless. Just keep in mind that our understanding of them and our ability to prove things by DNA testing has changed dramatically since it was written.