>>I love it when you guys with broader information post a detailed post like that one. There are a lot of folks that have heard about Great Plains Rats, the meahlmorum ssp and the BI locality but few have actually seen a description of how they differ from their more common cousins. How about posting one? With the number of people keeping Corns, these guys are a natural expansion of their collections. Folks just need to know more about them.





Thanks, Mark.



That's a great question and as I mentioned in my post I hope to be able to explain all the details someday. First, I hope to make a trip down there and get some habitat shots and maybe some in situ pics of nice Brazos Island Ratsnakes. The habitat has a lot to do with it.



The color/pattern is important, as you can see from that last photo, but you kinda have to be a GP rat lover to really see the beauty. Most hobbyists, I've noticed, are mainly into the "looks" of the snake. I'm more into the "species" first, then the best location for that species or subspecies. This is because of the things I specialize in...ecology and behavior of the snakes, field work, and ease of care in captivity, etc.



Actually, the Brazos Island "look" can probably be found anywhere in the area of the coast east of Brownsville and south of Padre Island. A lot of herpers will argue that the look can be found in areas much further north and west. Pinpointing the location, however, centers on the characteristics you're looking for. The BI rat is coastal, not an inland variation. It is also as far south in the U. S. as you can go w/o crossing into Mexico, important because it is central in the overall range of meahllmorum. The range of meahllmorum continues into Mexico for quite a ways. It is the location the snake comes from that is most important to me, almost more than the snake itself.



Who's to say someone couldn't come up with a snake that looks like the BI rat, but comes from a very different location. Noone. I'm not saying there's physical characteristics that can absolutely i.d. a BI rat. But there are some characteristics that we're looking for in them and have seen.



The head shape is a little more elongate with a slightly pointed snout. In general, the heads of meahllmorum tend to look more triangular than guttatus. Also, there's a smaller number of blotches, probably part of the clinal variation in GP rats. The blotches tend to deteriorate into H-shaped patterns. The ground color is very light tan with darker blotches. The snakes, in general, tend to be smallish, compared to other GP rats. They have small numbers of large eggs. They are fairly stocky, no direct comparisons, yet. We haven't studied the scalation much, yet, either, but hope to find some variation there too.



One of the things most people don't pay a lot of attention to is the behavior of the snakes. The Brazos Island ratsnakes don't hibernate per se, or brumate very much. They are probably opportunistically active year 'round. They are mainly nocturnal. They're a bit more terrestrial/fossorial than guttatus, which tends to be a little more aboreal. They fit in great with our collection. I'll know more about how they act in time.



Did I tell you about the fact that they are more tolerant of dry conditions? This is a captive condition which favors keepers in the Western U. S. and other dry areas of the world.



How's that for a start. Much more in the future, I hope



Terry




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Ratsnake Haven: Calico and albino Chinese stripe-tailed ratsnakes, Mandarin ratsnakes, Chinese twin-spotted ratsnakes, South Korean Dione's ratsnake, Great Plains rats and corn snakes

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