October 2009 Photo & Caption Comments Thread

[Stefan-A]

Doesn't it look more like Nerodia? I'm not very good with identification, but from this head-shot it looks just like a Nerodia Sipedon I rescued over the summer.

That was my first thought, but the preocular scales didn't seem right.

[GarterGeek]

That was my first thought, but the preocular scales didn't seem right.

Those are the scales around the eyes, right? I'm sorry, I'm still working on my terminology.
What didn't seem right about them? I'm not sure what to look for...

[Stefan-A]

Those are the scales around the eyes, right? I'm sorry, I'm still working on my terminology.
What didn't seem right about them? I'm not sure what to look for...

Yeah, the scales just in front of the eye. Garters tend to have one scale, in some cases two and it appears to be the same with Nerodia.

[wadih]

Hmmmm.... This is really strange.

This is one of the first snakes I bought and I always knew that it was a young garter male snake. Although I noticed some differences between it and my other garter snakes, but I am sure that when I bought the snake I asked for a garter. In fact now I am not sure what is it !!!

In all cases here is a bigger picture for it, maybe it will be easier to identify it.

Hopefully my next month picture will be accepted in the contest

[drache]

well, I'll leave the mystery snake to the experts, but the other one looks very much like a garter to me - both lovely snakes
curious about the final verdict regarding the non-garter

[Stefan-A]

I'm not convinced either one is a garter. At least, I don't remember seeing any Thamnophis species with two dorsal stripes. I think it might be two Natrix species, Natrix natrix persa (which does have two dorsal stripes) and Natrix tessellata.

[drache]

the one facing left? - I'm only seeing one dorsal stripe, Stefan
the rest of the pattern is unfamiliar to me, and it may well be some kind of natrix
to me it just really looks like a garter - the face, the dorsal stripe . . .
I do admit that with my poor eyesight it's too small to see sufficient detail in the face, but I'm pretty sure it really does only have one dorsal stripe

[count dewclaw]

I Google'd Natrix natrix persa and found this picture
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rix_persa1.jpg

I think Stefan is right. The spots in the picture posted by wadih looked too big for a garter to me. If you look closely you can see the double dorsal stripe on the edge of the snake.

[drache]

okay - still don't quite see the detail, but somehow that does look right

[drache]

it just occurred to me . . .
shouldn't we be voting - a week ago or so?