My New Wandering

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

I am in the field a lot, but honestly, I have never come across T. e. vagrans in the field personally. I'm in NW CA, so one of my favorite photo references is Alan St. John's "Reptiles of the Northwest" (Lone Pine Publishing). They have a wonderful pic of a hyper-melanistic individual, however under the right light the spots are still visible. My experience with patternless garters comes from Northwesterns (T. ordinoides) only.

I field herp Humboldt, Trinity, Siskiyou, Del Norte, and Mendocino counties in NW CA regularly. I occasionally hit San Diego County and parts of SW OR as well. You can forget San Diego for garters, they are virtually wiped out down there. In my childhood I saw them drain one natural pond after another to make way for suburbia there.

My regular encounters are with T. s. infernalis & fitchi (CA Red-sided & Valley Garters), T. ordinoides (the Northwestern Garter with all its morphs!), T. e. elegans & terrestris (Mountain & Coast Garters), and T. a. hydrophilus (Oregon Garter). There are natural and continuously changing intergrade zones between the 2 ssp. within the sirtalis clade and b/n the 2 ssp. within the elegans clade. There are also suspected hybrid zones b/n Mountain & Oregon Garters and b/n Coast and both ssp. of sirtalis (local and locally monitored breeding ops and/or further mitochondrial DNA testing required). In the case of Mountains and Oregons, reintegration is suggested.

There is so much work to be done in garter research! Unfortunately, captive garter genetics will be heading towards that same fate shared by many other captive-bred species (boas, corns, kings, etc...) A lot of untracked genes (usually because of amateur breeders who don't know the specifics of a snake's genetic history!) are messing up original patterns. Total loss of unique and ORIGINAL morphs will yield less than spectacular intergrades or mutts in the future. Mutts are cool, but not for the wild populations! And they get loose all the time. If you throw in amelanism or off the wall color morphs, they are dead meat in the wild! Plus if they get to breed, then you've got hets in the wild that may eventually cause a small decline in population ratios. Sorry to go off on a tangent... Must have been some other thread!

Anyways, that's my babble.

Steven

[Snake lover 3-25]

lol this sounds really really stupid.... but.... can you explain what you just said in.... um.... well.... shorter easier terms????

[GartersRock]

Very imformative post Steven! Thank you very much!

Shanley, lol!! =D It'll come!

[Snake lover 3-25]

[GartersRock]

What? I'm trying to encourage you! =D
Oh, count me in on another poor soul who has found herself waiting nervously for Sooty's babies. lol!

[Snake lover 3-25]

OMG!!!! go to sooties babies thread!!!