Buck! (and possibly future additions)

[ConcinusMan]

It has been suggested to me that I could dedicate a thread to my snake(s). So here it is!

Buck is ?his? name! I've had him for about a week now and he's eaten just a single guppy so far. He's a Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi (Valley Garter). I'm thinking about breeding guppies, as the local pet store has no true feeder guppies and charge $5 for each one.

Right now his tank is pretty basic, a little bit wider and deeper than his length. There's a large water dish, a tall, circular piece of driftwood, and a small hide. I plan on improving his tank and maybe even getting him a buddy very soon. Anyways, I'll stop talking, here's more pictures of the one and only: Buck! XD

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That's a puget. They look like this on the Island. There are no valley garters on the island at all. They occur in the drier climate of the interior. Don't worry, you wouldn't be the first, and won't be the last person to call these valley garters. I have found ones that look like this as far south as Lewis Co. WA and valley garters don't occur in western WA at all. They live east of the cascade range, and in the valleys of the cascade mountains.

[Buck]

I don't live on Vancouver Island, actually, just a small city close to Vancouver on the mainland.

Also, are you sure? (It's just that a lot of people seemed to agree that it was a Valley Garter)

How do you tell the difference, other than habitat range?

[ConcinusMan]

You pretty much don't tell them apart aside from range. For some reason I thought you got the snake on the island. The weird thing is that you'll find snakes that look just like that on the island and in parts of western WA but they aren't fitchii. They are found in pickeringi populations and share traits of both ssp. Southern B.C. is a rather confusing area since there seems to be areas of integration so it gets very difficult to tell the difference between what is a red version of a puget, and what is a fitchi. It very well could be a fitchi or a puget, or both, or neither I suppose. Where you draw the line between the two can be quite arbitrary since they are both just T. sirtalis'. Looks to me like snakes around there have traits from both subspecies, in varying degrees.

For some reason I thought you got this one where only pugets occur so I thought it would be a red phase puget.

I know this one isn't exactly like yours but check this out. It's a puget. I know this because it was found in a thick population of pugets and it's way outside of fitchi range. Same population also had bright colored ones dang near indistinguishable from your snake. If I go farther south, I find pugets that look more like concinnus than fitchi. But that's among lots of other snakes that completely lack red.

[ConcinusMan]

I think that the northern end of the island and the southern B.C. coastal area are intergrade zones.

[Buck]

I'm confused now XD lol Thank-you for this information though! I'll try to research it a bit more, but for now it's unknown. :P

[Mommy2many]

Buck is a really pretty girl! try earthworms. She should love them. Good luck with her.

[ConcinusMan]

I'm confused now XD

You're not alone. Garter snake taxonomy has always been confusing. DNA sampling has answered a lot of questions but much more sampling is needed. Appearances are deceiving. DNA never lies.

The close proximity of S.F. garters and very similar looking infernalis' for example. They look a lot alike, so it was always assumed they were very closely related. The reality is, each one of those subspecies is more closely related to garters in other parts of the country, than they are to each other. Like I said, appearances are deceiving.