>>Obviously, that guy is NO professional regardless of what he claimed to be.



Actually, "professionals" can be just as dumb as anybody else.



>>Your example is irrelevant because maybe the guy claimed to be some expert, but a REAL expert would never confuse a garter and a corn, even if they were both pure white.



Actually, it's quite relevant. And heck, even folks like Ben Siegel were offering to buy that snake as a piebald corn, even though they already had pics available to them. One often doesn't know who is a "real expert" and who is just blowing smoke when they make a claim -- but asking them challenging questions and paying attention to their responses will tell you a whole lot about them.



And please do remember -- my questions about your snake were NOT all about doubting your ID. As I said from the first, I myself couldn't tell whether it was a milk or not. In the beginning I asked simple questions about how to differentiate the two, both to be absolutely sure of the ID and also to educate myself. The whole discussion got more involved in large part just because one or two individuals chose to shovel manure instead of good info. I'm sorry they inflicted all that nonsense on your thread.



This whole thread could have been concluded very quickly with a few pieces of info. For instance: "yes, superficially these snakes look very similar. However, I live outside of the native range for corns. In addition, there are several characteristics which tend to make the milk look like a milk -- for instance, its very evenly distributed saddles, its narrow head, lack of obvious neck, and short nose, its cylindrical body and short tail, its smooth shiny scales, and so on. These characteristics may not always be diagnostic, and may be misleading or difficult to appreciate in photos -- but an examination of the anal plate will tell us for sure."



Et voila! No fuss, no muss, no drama. See how easy that could have been?
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)

2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (Arco, Olho)

0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)

1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (Coatl)

0.0.1 Mexican black kingsnake (TBA)

2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, Uce, TBA)

1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

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