New Here

[Ameivaboy]

Hello, I'm new to this site but far from new to reptiles.
I have been keeping reptiles on and off all my life and am currently keeping 0.1 Colombian Tegu, 0.0.1 Argentine Tegu, 2.2.4 Southern Alligator Lizards, 0.1 Green Phase African House snake (fuliginosus not inornatus), 1.0 western hognose snake, 1.2 Leopard geckos and 1.1 Puget Sound Garter snakes. Along with that I breed several species of feeder insects and love feild herping in northern California. I have worked as a "reptile specialist" shortly in a pet store trying to better the care animals received (but pet stores will be pet stores) and currently work in the digital imaging field full time and part time in reptile wholesale. so that's just a lil bit about me, here's a couple pics of my Thamnophis Sirtalis Pickeringi

[Boots]

Welcome to the forum. Glad you found us.

Jason

[Cazador]

Hi Kevin,

It's always great to get fresh perspectives and learn new techniques from other experienced herpers. Welcome to the forum, and please join in often. Do you do much herping in Northern California, and have you ever seen wild T.s. tetrataenia?

Rick

[GarterGuy]

Howdy and welcome to the forum. You're very lucky to live in Ca. There are some wonderful Thamnophis species there, not to mention all the other herps that are to be found.
Roy

[Ameivaboy]

in spring a few years ago i spent a good amount of time at the northern tip of the SF garters range trying to photograph a wild specimen to no avail (though i still want to make it back out that way) I had previously written a small generic article on them for a website that is no longer running but i will post the info here as it has some fact and some of my experience in the area

Generally when you think of an endangered species you think of far away lands,but this is not always the case. There's a small town just south of San Franciso,Ca that is the northern most point of viable populations of a rare and extremeley endagered species- The San Francisco Garter Snake. There have been efforts by state and federal agencies to help protect and preserve the serpents habitats, but i fear this may not be enough.
Although ceratin parts of the area are protected from hiking and recreational use, these parts are spread apart and divided by housing,freeways and commercial properties. The main "reserve" that boasts of its SF garters is the only one that I know of, that allows for recreational use, including dog walking along the trails.This leads to massive amounts of feces left by careless canine owners. Also the largest body of freshwater around this "reserve" is a lake in a golf course that borders it. With that being said, good things are being done however as several ponds have been built that have encouraged the equally endangered red legged frogs to return to the area, an important source of food for SF garters. Additional work has been done to restore the coastal prairies that support popuations of pocket gophers and voles,whos burrows are vital to the snakes habitat.
In the time I spent in the area in spring 2005, i was glad to see numerous rodent tunnels. Tadpoles of Pacific Tree Frogs were abundant in the seasonal ponds and Slender Salamanders were spotted from time to time. So in conclusion good things are happening but more needs to be done to preserve this endangered species.

and the small bit on zoological institutions efforts

In 2003 there were no more S.F. Garters in American zoos, but thanks to to dedicated people and groups such as the San Francisco Garter Snake Working Group, the snakes have finally returned to the facilities of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. Five mixed pairs of yearlings arrived in the U.S. from Europe in April 2005. Three of the pairs are the new foundation of the breeding project at the San Diego Zoo. The last two pairs will stay at the San Francisco Zoo for public education. I would personally like to appluad everyone who was apart of this for their efforts.

[Ameivaboy]

oh lol i got carried away on the previous post, i was finally able to get some pix capturing the color of the pugets colors better, and for the moderators I didnt notice any pix of the puget sound garter under the subspecies photos so feel free to use mine (lol yes i can get better ones), all i ask for is being credited


first is the male



and the female

[GarterGirl]

Welcome to the forum!
You have beautiful snakes! I was born in San Francisco and I still consider myself a San Franciscan, even though I have lived in New York for most of my life.

[adamanteus]

Welcome to the forum Kevin. Nice pics!!

[Cazador]

Kevin,

I added the picture of your female T.s. pickeringii to the caresheets as you requested. Unfortunately, it doesn't show the vivid blue coloration as well as the male's picture, but it's a clearer picture. The caresheets are in a "wiki" format, so please feel free to make whatever additions or changes you'd like. They're a community effort from those here at thamnophis.com, and they're always being improved. There are also backup copies, so don't worry about accidentally deleting anything important. Just let Jason (Boots) or myself (Cazador) know if you think you might have made an error that you can't correct.

It's funny how the timing of things play out sometimes. Sid contacted me yesterday, asking if he could post some pictures of my blue snakes into the caresheets because I mis-labelled in the gallery as T.s. pickeringii. I believed them to be T.s. pickeringii when I purchased them, but my surviving snakes are blue-phase T. ordinoides. They look VERY similar to the T.s. pickeringii that you and others have. The distinguishing characteristics are that pickeringii have much narrower necks, more triangular heads, shorter internasals, and 19 dorsal scale rows as opposed to 17 on T. ordinoides. Other than that, they're almost identical.

That meant that Sid couldn't use my pictures in the gallery yesterday. Then you turn up today offering your pictures. You don't have ESP, do you?

Rick

[Thamnophis]

Hi Kevin, welcome here.

I love your snakes. Especially the very thin line on the back makes them very beautiful.