Help Itdentify morph and species

[ebcjoel]

I caught this guy in my backyard. I have a small colony of garters that live there. I think it's a common garter and I think some type of albino. Let me know what y'all think. In eastern Washington. So there's a few overlapping species

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[guidofatherof5]

It looks like your state has 3 Thamnophis species.
T. elegans - Western Terrestrial Garter Snake
T. ordinoides - Northwestern Garter Snake
T. sirtalis - Common Garter Snake.

[ebcjoel]

Yep those are the ones just not sure which this is. I think it's T. sirtalis

[guidofatherof5]

Whichever it is you have a treasure there. Have you done a scale count? Do you have this book?
Seem a bit large to be a Northwestern.

[MNGuy]

I caught this guy in my backyard. I have a small colony of garters that live there. I think it's a common garter and I think some type of albino. Let me know what y'all think. In eastern Washington. So there's a few overlapping species

20200610_194358.jpg20200610_194728.jpg20200610_194354.jpg

Wow! These live in your yard?! Those are some amazing colors on so many wild garters in one spot.

[ebcjoel]

This is the only one with this mutation that I have found.

[ebcjoel]

Also I just noticed who wrote this book. Neil Ford was an acquaintance of mine a long time ago and he gave we two wandering garter snakes. Gosh that was 30 years ago

[Manitou]

Well since you want to know what we all think:
1) I think it's a male
2) I think you need to breed it to as many local females as possible in hopes of producing similar offspring.

I would gather up ~20 females from as close as possible to where you obtained that male and brumate them all together with that male this upcoming winter. If that subspecies drops litters in late summer then before brumation time you may find some neonates of similar mutation, because the trait is in the gene pool in that area. The 100+ neonates that will be of normal color/pattern can just be released back into the wild.
Good luck!

[guidofatherof5]

20 females! Let's not wear him out.

[guidofatherof5]

My friend Steve S. sent me this email with regards to this snake. I thought I would share it with you.

Hey Steve,
Noticed this on the garter snake forum. I think it's an incredibly beautiful leucistic, hypomelanistic Thamnophis e. vagrans!
Of course, a potentially cannibalistic species, so prospective mates should be same size and, ideally, monitored as much as possible. Don't want "Mama" eating "Papa" (or even trying) in case they become too excited!
Also, I'm pretty sure that all native snakes are technically protected in Washington state, so a word to the wise...
Hope all is well with you and your family in these trying times.
Stay healthy,
Steve