Garter identification...

Rubix · 08-12-04, 10:13 PM

Grabbed a couple of friends today and went out snake foraging... there isn't much variety to be found around here in Southern Sask, but the swamps and ponds are crawling with these little guys.

Anyone care to identify him? I was thinking perhaps a plains garter...

dave68 · 08-12-04, 10:35 PM

It sort of just looks like a common garter or kind of looks like a butler's garter but I believe they're in south ontario could be wrong though, Ithought plains had more checkers???- Allison

Rubix · 08-12-04, 10:46 PM

Checkers... gotcha. It's likely just a common garter then.
Thanks

CamHanna · 08-13-04, 12:54 AM

I would say red-sided garter, a subspecies of the common garter. I don't know my western species very well so I might be wrong.

Vanan · 08-13-04, 03:33 PM

Looks like a plains to me. Unless you're in the northern parts of SK, it'd be a radix you'd find.

CamHanna · 08-13-04, 06:13 PM

radix was my first though too, but then I checked my field guide and it said the westerns have a strong checkered pattern. Is this inaccurate?

Jonathan Crowe · 08-16-04, 06:20 PM

Vanan is right and everybody else is wrong. It's definitely a plains garter.

Remember, there are only three garters in Saskatchewan: plains, red-sided and wandering. (Always start with what's possible in the area, not what it looks like. Limit your options.) Sometimes it's a process of elimination: it's definitely not a wandering, and there aren't any red sides there.

But for me, since I keep all three, I just squint at the picture. Nothing else in Canada has a dorsal stripe that orange. (Texas garters, maybe, but you're a long way from Texas.)

CamHanna · 08-16-04, 07:50 PM

Gottcha,

I guess I had a little to much faith in my field guide, but after looking at some websites I to would call that radix. On a side note, I have heard of colourless red-sided garters and have attatched an image of one such animal from Scott Felzer's site ( www.gartersnakemorphs.com ). Mr. Crowe, what kinds of garters do you have?

Jonathan Crowe · 08-17-04, 10:28 AM

At the moment: Butler's, checkered, eastern, plains, red-sided and wandering garters. In the past I've also kept northern and western ribbons, and red-spotted and eastern black-necked garters. Would keep more if I could find them!