San Francisco Garter snake

[65StangGuy]

I found two of these snakes i Believe are SF Garters. but all the research ive done says they live in San Mateo and Santa Cruz areas, i found these farther north by the Solano/Yolo County line.

[Char361979]

Markings and colours are wrong for a SF. Seen some in captivity over here. Nothing like that. Much more colourful.

[chris-uk]

Welcome to the forum! We all seem to have missed your post for the last 8 days...

The good news is that they don't look like San Francisco garters to me. The San Frans have an orange head and brighter blue stripe. Take a look at the pics here: Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia
They look like T. sirtarlis parietalis to me, although others who keep sirtalis may be give a more positive ID. It's good news because from the pics you look like you have picked up a couple of adults and have them in your home (correct me if I'm wrong there), which if you've done your research on San Frans you'll know they are protected under federal laws...

[guidofatherof5]

Welcome to the forum.
Not S.F. garter. Probably T.s.infernalis Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis - California Red-sided Gartersnake
Good thing it wasn't a S.F. garter those photos would be used as evidence against you. Federal law prohibites any contact at all.

[mb90078]

Certainly not a SF garter. Doesn't look like a prototypical California Red sided compared to pictures I've seen, but certainly more probable than an SF.

Fairly large snake though.

[65StangGuy]

Thanks for taking a look. No i never brought them into my house, that was in the garage. im the type of person who will catch a snake first then try to figure out what it is later. guess im glad it wasnt a sf garter although i never read anything saying they cannot be handled. i dont keep any snakes i catch. i always release them right where i find them after snapping a few photos. here are a few more pics of snakes i have caught over the past month or so. one of them was caught in the act of eating one of my eggs in the chicken coop.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Those two girls are huge.

[ssssnakeluvr]

look like t s fitchi to me.... nice looking snakes, huge female in the first pic!

[ConcinusMan]

Look like fitchi to me too. Sometimes infernalis' can look a lot like that but I'm going to say T.s. fitchi. Nice one too! She's huge! Keep in mind that while it is legal under CA law to collect fitchi, you must have a fishing license do do so and there is a daily limit. Also, even though its legal under CA law to collect them, some counties/cities ban the keeping of native reptiles. Check your local county/city laws. I don't know if it's changed since the 1980's but I know that in San Diego county, when I lived there, it was illegal to keep or even pick up native reptiles as pets, even if its legal under CA law. They only allowed killing (not keeping) rattlesnakes. Everything else was off-limits. San Diego, and some other counties/cities are very protective of their herps and penalties are harsh. In any case, CA does not allow one to sell, trade, import, breed, or release any captive natives once they are captured. They only allow you to kill or keep collected ones. And just for reference, the snake pictured at the top of the forum is a S.F. garter and is a typical example. You can see it's very different than the snake you caught. S.F. garters are pretty much confined to the area south of San Fransisco city limits. Mostly west of Hwy 280/Hillsborough/San Mateo in protected wildlife areas where it is illegal to touch any of the garters/wildlife found there, endangered or not. They don't exist, that anyone knows of, where you found this snake. I was just in Sacramento, Lodi, Stockton, then Antioch about a month ago. Not far at all from where you found this gorgeous snake. I'm jealous.

[ConcinusMan]

Perhaps this comparison will clear up any confusion.

SF garter: (T. sirtalis tetrataena)


Your snake (T. sirtalis fitchi I believe) a.k.a. Valley Garter snake


Valley garter (T. sirtalis fitchi)


California Red-sided garter snake (T. sirtalis infernalis)