Wild tetrataenia

[BUSHSNAKE]

very cool...the face of conservation

[charles parenteau]

very nice tanks for sharing with us!

[annulataarethebest]

beautiful snakes it's too bad us regular people aren't allowed to keep them.

[katach]

Those are so beautiful! Thank you for sharing your amazing outing with us.

[d_virginiana]

You're so lucky to be able to see them in the wild! Great pics and thanks for sharing!

[Spankenstyne]

Fantastic, they look great

[zooplan]

Thank you for sharing the photos.
If different species of Thamnophis are sharing one habitat, they are prefering different sights of it.
I would guess that Thamnophis atratus is most adapted to the water, Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia is prefering marshy areas around the shores and Thamnophis elegans should be found mostly on higher (and dryer) ground.

[sauceman]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I am still enjoying the experience. Before this day, I had never seen a tetrataenia captive or otherwise. I see some incredible infernalis which are close but these were a huge treat.

[sauceman]

Thank you for sharing the photos.
If different species of Thamnophis are sharing one habitat, they are prefering different sights of it.
I would guess that Thamnophis atratus is most adapted to the water, Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia is prefering marshy areas around the shores and Thamnophis elegans should be found mostly on higher (and dryer) ground.

The atratus are certainly more adapted and dependent upon water sources. I usually see them in or very close to the water. However, I have had a couple of strange findings where I found atratus in areas that were dominated by T. elegans terrestris and the nearest water was several hundred yards away. At times, I have flipped artificial cover to find a stack of T. elegans terrestris and one T. atratus piled up together.

The terrestris that were found on Sunday were very close to the water, almost wet. All but one of the tetrataenia were adjacent to the ponds (within 5 feet or so) and would flee immediately into the pond upon being seen unless movements were meticulously slow and some natural obstruction such as a bush was used to approach.

It seems that these three species spend much of their time in the same habitat but, as you correctly pointed out, they each have different tendencies that are unique aside from the overlap. I believe one key difference is preferred food types. The terrestris seem to prefer eating slugs and other terrestrial food types, atratus seem to eat almost exclusively aquatic items such as small fish and tadpoles, and tetrataenia seem to dine almost exclusively on anurans (tree frogs, bullfrogs, and red-legged frogs).

[jitami]

Great insight by both of you. I've only had the pleasure of finding T. e. elegans and have found them both in/around water and relatively far from water. The ones in/near water react as sauceman described the tetrataenia and flee to the water when approached. A little wading was required to get a closer look

Oh, almost forgot about my underwater encounter with couchii... had one bump me repeatedly while sitting on a rock that was under water and saw several others in and around the same river, but they're known to be highly aquatic.