Had an interesting thing happen last weekend. Met some folks who said they'd just released a getulus, which they'd caught and hand-fed a sceloperus. Evidently, the snake took the lizard right out of the kid's hand and ate it on the spot. They showed me the snake--still under the rock they'd put him under. He was as docile as if he'd been handled every day.



Anyway...



1 neonate zonata. Mount Hamilton. These animals are markedly different from the coastal. More like a triangulum or elapsoides, with yellow/cream instead of white, and very smooth bands, not "jagged" like the coastals. (I really MUST get a camera.) Can someone tell me if these are a separate ssp, or are they an intergrade? If so, what ssp would intergrade on Mt. Hamilton?



2 Coluber constrictor. Re-catches of earlier.



1 L. getulus. Injured some time ago by careless rock lifting (by others, not me), but seems to be healing well.



60000000 Crotalus. One close call, which I relocated.



1 Masticophis lateralis with an attitude.



1 Diadophis punctatus--very coral underside. (I don't know my ssp names on this animal.)



Lizards everywhere--what else is new? Am still finding enormous Elgaria in a place I discovered last year, and Sceloperus you'd take for iguanas at first glance--they're that big. The Eumeces there are also huge. However, I have yet to see a single snake in this spot, a trash heap that's been there for only a couple of years. Is there a connection between exceptionally large lizards and absence of predators? The zonata was less than a half-mile away in fairly contiguous habitat, so I know they're around. Maybe they haven't discovered the as-yet hidden abundance of food items. Yet.



Regards.

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• SF Bay Area Report - bayareaherper, Sun May 30 16:25:08 2004
• MH zonata - bgerman, Sun May 30 23:04:37 2004