What species is this?

[Light of Dae]

Figured I'd start this thread for me n anyone else who wants to post pictures of unknown snakes :)

Now my baby girl was captive born from a wild caught gravid female. This baby is starting to look brighter, her center stripe is bright orange, and she's getting 'flushed' lol looks like she is always blushing with orange cheeks, her side stripes are a nice bright yellow greenish starting to look orange near her head. and where she was solid black in-between center stripe n side stripes its now turning a deep rusty purplish brown with spots! Pictures don't do her justice. Will try to get more taken later with better lighting. Oh and this is an Alberta Canada Snake.

32693270
See how she's almost purple looking? Neat eh?

[Light of Dae]

3271I made it little bigger so you can see her color little better.
Any know what species she would be? Oh and I need to name her! Suggestions welcome!

[EasternGirl]

She's very pretty....

[chris-uk]

Tough call, the picture is still a bit small and blurry.
If I was taking a guess I'd maybe go with Thamnophis atratus zaxanthus (http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/t.a.zaxanthus.html) (Thamnophis atratus zaxanthus - Diablo Range Gartersnake (http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/t.a.zaxanthus.html)) did it look like this when you were holding it?
http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/images/tazax04mt.jpg
(borrowed the photo from California Snakes Photo Index (http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/snakespics.html))

I'm going on the dorsal stripe being more orange and the sides being yellow. Do you know where it came from? The snakes range is a great way to tell what it is, because obviously if it came from the east coast it's not likely to be one of these.

[Light of Dae]

Its from Alberta, Canada. central area. for sure not a Cali snake.

[chris-uk]

In that case I'm going for a Western Plains Garter - Thamnophis radix haydeni

Take a look here: The Western Plains Garter Snake at the UAMZ (http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/uamz.hp/snake.html)

If I'm right it's a radix, so you can expect confirmation from Steve when he wakes up from his afternoon nap ;)

[Light of Dae]

hmm She looks a lot like that, but she's got quite the color showing up in her that I'm almost wondering if her mother was met by a red sided garter? I'm not sure, but to me she looks like a mix of Thamnophis sirtalis and Thamnophis radix haydeni ???

[BUSHSNAKE]

just Thamnophis radix

[snakehill]

The color of the stripe says Radix to me! The rest says Sirtalis sirtalis! ;) Steve! Opinion please!!! (stupid computer again!)

[guidofatherof5]

Sorry Chris, I can't concur with your identification since there are no subspecies of T.radix recognized anymore.;)
T.radix range map.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/radix_range_bordered_Quick_e-mail_view.jpg


Central Alberta would probably mean T.s.parietalis (Red Sided Garter Snake).
Not my first guess at first glance but the Rossman range maps leans that way for sure.
I know that T.s.parietalis can range greatly in appearance.

Range map of T.sirtalis/subs from "The Garter Snakes-Evolution and Ecology"

A scale count would help with this ID.
That can't be done from these photos.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/sirtalis_range_1.jpg

[RedSidedSPR]

Thamnophis radix haydeni

Stop it!! not again...:D

My guess is radix too, but just Thamnophis radix, there's no other Plains garter

[chris-uk]

That's what I get for looking at outdated info. I'm learning that subspecies are a grey area, some Thamnophis have recognised subspecies still, others don't.

On the ID front, I can't imagine a scale count is particularly easy on a live, moving snake. Is there a technique to counting scales? Maybe a set of photos stitched together?

[ssssnakeluvr]

thamnophis radix.... not intergrade, not haydeni (the subspecies doesn't exit, just color variation of mmormal radix).