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Garter Snake

Thamnophis sp.

Description:

A garter snake species. Not sure of the exact species. The red coloration is not common from what I've seen of these snakes.

Habitat:

Found of the forest floor near a fallen log which it retreated to after a few minutes

Notes:

Would not have seen this beautiful snake had it not attacked my shoe.

7 Comments

LuckyLogan
LuckyLogan 9 years ago

Thanks for the kind comments everyone! Also, thanks for helping narrow it down to Thamnophis sirtalis. I'm thinking that is could be T. s. parietalis, which is a subspecies with red markings. Anyone agree?

Carol Snow Milne
Carol Snow Milne 9 years ago

I love Eastern Garter Snakes. I love the red in this one. Awesome shots!

outsidegirl0
outsidegirl0 9 years ago

nice one LuckyLogan

Sckel
Sckel 9 years ago

I hope your shoe is okay. :D

It's a beautiful snake. I like the sober colors.

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 9 years ago

Yes Lucky, the widespread common garter snake has many subspecies that "can" have (quite a bit of) red coloration (e.g. Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis), and other species as well can have red, including Thamnophis radix http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetology/...

LuckyLogan
LuckyLogan 9 years ago

Done Scott. Any idea on why it has red in it's design? Is that common for garters?

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 9 years ago

Yes a garter snake. In the meantime, you could add that in to the common name rather than "unknown spotting" since it really isn't "unkonwn". There are 3 species in Iowa http://www.gartersnake.info/species/us/i... All three are of the genus Thamnophis. In the meantime could be written "Thamnophis sp." in the scientific name. :-)

LuckyLogan
Spotted by
LuckyLogan

Iowa, USA

Spotted on Apr 21, 2014
Submitted on Apr 21, 2014

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