wild caught garter -gender and type?

[acovert]

My uncle lives along the lewiston river in washington state. My boyfriend and I were walkingn along the river for fun. I had kept an eye open for snakes (the fish in the river attract them) but hadn't seen any. As we were heading towrds the wooden stairs to go back to this house, this little beauty popped out onto the bottom step. It was easy to catch. Right now it's sitting in a plastic container (we're still at my uncles, and his wife isn't a fan of snakes so we're going to relocate it at this point).

What I'm wondering is if its male or female and what type of garter. I'm thinking female and northwestern. I have some pictures but I can't post them right now. I have just this one, that my boyfriend took with his phone:

wcgarter.jpg

[Invisible Snake]

Looks like a T. atratus atratus - Santa Cruz garter snake, but they don't range in that area. I'm thinking northwestern as well

[acovert]

Yeah, I doubt its a santa cruz garter. I'm fairly certain its a northwestern. Thats the most common around here. Of course, I could be wrong. I'm more interested in the gender...I'll try to get some pics up soon so that people can see the tail and vent area. Its been injured around that area so I'm having trouble deciding between male or female. My only experience is with my snake, Cuddles.

[Greg'sGarters]

I'm not 100% sure (don't really know much about garters outside of Thamnophis sirtalis, Thamnophis sauritus and Thamnophis proximus), but if I had to guess, Thamnophis ordinoides.

[guidofatherof5]

Good healthy looking snake. I would guess from the size and if it is a T.ordinoides - Northwestern it would be a female.

[acovert]

Yeah. I'm thinking by size and attitude that it's a female. Her vent/tail area is all scarred up. And for a wild caught snake she is pretty calm and easy to handle.

EDIT
Here are a couple of vent area pictures:

snake1.jpgsnake2.jpgsnake3.jpgsnake4.jpg

[acovert]

And, just because I can, we took a few pictures of the area around the scarring on her tail. It also looks as though she may have lost the tip of her tail at some point. We've named her Battlecry because of her scars. Battlecry seemed more feminine than Battlescar. My boyfriend wants to keep her, since we had to move her from my uncle's house (they don't like snakes and she was making her home in a rather dangerous spot....not to mention my uncle threatened to grill her up and eat her >_<). I'm debating between releasing her at Powell Butte or the Sandy River Delta Park, or letting my boyfriend keep her.

And by dangerous, I mean lawn mower and human traffic dangerous. She was making her home right in the stairs where my aunt and uncle walk every day, and where my uncle just mowed the lawn yesterday. I'm glad she didn't get caught by that.

Odd_color_change[1].jpgScarring[1].jpg

[guidofatherof5]

It's difficult to nail it down because of the injury but that tail looks male.

[katach]

Exactly what I was thinking Steve. Tough to say from that injury, but male is my thought as well.

[Selkielass]

I am guessing male too, but hard to say w that scarring.
In Michigan I've only seen males out and moving, but the snow has barely disappeared.
Is it late enough in your area for the females to be out?