'Glades Trip *PICS*

[jjnnbns]

Well, I just got back from a trip to Florida and caught a few pics (over 100 I guess!) of gators, a few snakes, and even a lizard. I was pretty excited as this was a vacation with my family and they are not too excited about any of these creatures. We did make it into the everglads once though, and I took full advantage.

Here are the snakes first... Does anyone know what this first one is? We decided that it was a watersnake but not a cottonmouth, I hope that we were right or I was lucky, cuz I held onto it for a few minutes so that another couple could get a look at it.

http://bitz.net/~ato/Pictures/Brent/glades_watersnake.jpg

And this, I believe, was a ribbon snake?

http://bitz.net/~ato/Pictures/Brent/glades_ribbon.jpg


This guy was fast, and bright red! A skink perhaps?

http://bitz.net/~ato/Pictures/Brent/glades_skink.jpg

Now, here are a few pics of the gators! I have many more but can't put them all up I guess!

http://bitz.net/~ato/Pictures/Brent/Glades_gator1.jpg
http://bitz.net/~ato/Pictures/Brent/glades_gator2.jpg
http://bitz.net/~ato/Pictures/Brent/glades_gator3.jpg
http://bitz.net/~ato/Pictures/Brent/glades_gator4.jpg
http://bitz.net/~ato/Pictures/Brent/glades_gator5.jpg
http://bitz.net/~ato/Pictures/Brent/glades_gator6.jpg


The trip was awesome and I can't wait to try herping around here when it warms up too! I hope that everyone enjoys the pics and if you have any other info or wanna correct me on any of it I would appreciate it!

-Brent

[Gregg M]

Looks like everything is correct..... The first pic is a banded watersnake I believe....... Pretty good cotton mimic......

[jjnnbns]

I was pretty sure, but looking back I maybe should've been 100% sure first. I assume that a cottonmouth has a more triangular head though, is this right?

Either way it was a Beautiful snake!

[Gregg M]

Yes, they have triangular shaped heads jist like any other viper........ And yes, you should always be 100% sure that it is not a venomous snake before you go and pick it up......LOL......

[jjnnbns]

I wasn't "handling" it completely, I just held onto the tail as it was moving through the brush, so that it stayed visible for a few minutes longer. Even though I have no problems handling my own snakes, I was somewhat nervous about picking him up without knowing for sure.

I was disappointed that I didn't see any corns or even Florida Kings... oh well, I wouldn't have been shy about handling them

[snakehunter]

the first snake looks like a mongrove watersnake, or a northern, both a Nerodia species

the second is a ribbon, thamnophis somethingorother

The lizard is a skink, most likelya broad head, but could be a male five line. Five line males DO NOT have the strips and blue tail, those are the females.

[lanceinhispance]

the first pic looks like so kind of water snake, my guess would be what my brother said (snakehunter). the first we saw where we look for them looked like a cottnemouth and kinda scared the crap out us for a while untill we started cathing them reguarly and noticed that they look just like the cottonmouths.

[Removed_2815]

Originally posted by snakehunter
The lizard is a skink, most likelya broad head, but could be a male five line.
Most definitely E. laticeps (Broadhead Skink), a sexually mature male. Such as this one:
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1295broad-headed_skink.jpg


Originally posted by snakehunter
Five line males DO NOT have the strips and blue tail, those are the females.
Close, not quite though. You are quite right about the stripes, the presence is sometimes a good indication of a female.
Both juvenile males and females of the three easily confused members of Eumeces (laticeps - broadhead, inexpectatus - Southern five-lined, fasciatus - Eastern five-lined) have blue tails.
Fully mature adults (males and females) do not have the blue tails. You may occasionally encounter young animals (second or third year) exhibiting juvenile and adult coloration, such as this one:
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/28155-lined_skink.jpg
Notice the blue tail (juvenile characteristic) and orange throat and head (characteristic of older males during breeding season).

However, fully mature male five-lined skinks will look like this:
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2984big_male.jpg

And a fully mature female five-lined skinks will look like this (no blue tail, no orange coloration; however, they do retain the striping - even this sometimes diminishes almost completely with age):
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/29842_tailed_5-lined_skink.jpg

Finally, both sexes of juvenile E. fasciatus look like this:
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1295skink.jpg
Actually, laticeps, fasciatus, and inexpectatus all look exactly the same as juveniles and since there is so much overlap and possible hybridization scale-counts are even unreliable.

Cheers,
Ryan
P.S. I love talking about Eumeces if you haven't noticed....:thumbsup:

[snakehunter]

Thanx for informing me!

Ilove those guys too, ive only caught one though, a hatchling no more than an inch long! Gotta love em

[sketchy4]

sweet pics!