Question about scars and scales

[Didymus20X6]

Scars.jpg

[ConcinusMan]

Very interested in the tail tip photo. I had a ribbon snake, Eddy, who had suffered a broken tail at some point in his life before I got him as a youngster.

Sometimes they're just born that way.

[ConcinusMan]

Wow...17 years is an extremely long life for a garter or ribbon snake. Isn't that some sort of record?

Nope. It's not a record unless confirmed by a zoologist. In other words, if the snake spent it's entire life in a zoo, then it would be a record.

I think there was someone on here (was it Richard?) who had a couple of concinnus live to be 18-20... At least I think I'm remembering that correctly. I think anything in the 12+ age range is considered pretty old.

I would say anything over 10 is "pretty old"

Nowhere are you going to find a record of a garter snake living 21 years but I had one that long and I can imagine that it probably is as long as they are capable of living but... Like I said, if it isn't in a zoo, it's not a record.

I would say that 17 for a ribbon is definitely a long life, but absolutely not out of the question.

Oh, and back on topic, you probably already know now... the scales won't grow back. In fact, surgically removing scales in a specific pattern was used to I.D. individual snakes in field studies and even to I.D. very valuable captive snakes before RFID tags were invented.

[chris-uk]

In fact, surgically removing scales in a specific pattern was used to I.D. individual snakes in field studies and even to I.D. very valuable captive snakes before RFID tags were invented.

I'll put that down as "interesting fact of the day".

[ConcinusMan]

I read about that in some old-school scientific papers when I was a kid. They were doing movement, growth, and longevity studies and that's how they marked their subjects, which happened to be garter snakes of course.

[harpercat]

Yes, I discovered that it wouldn't count as a record, as I was aware that 17 was quite an achievement for a little guy like Eddy so I looked into the possibility. He was definitely at least a year old when I got him and I definitely had him from 1988 to 2004, so if anything he was over 17. It's great to see what is possible though.

[ConcinusMan]

it happens occasionally so its definitely possible. not typical by any means, but there you have it folks. they can live to around 20 yrs old.