Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if you all have noticed if there is a big difference between the activity periods of alterna and other local nocturnal snakes. For example, do you find that on nights/times that the graybands seem to be out, is there also a lot of other snake activity evident? Conversely, do you often experience evenings where you see many subocs, lepidus, etc, but not a trace of alterna?

Thanks!
Brad Chambers

Windy with subocs and centipedes active have been pretty good for me.

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Steve W.

That is sage advice!
Todd Hughes

When my son and I began to hunt in earnest for gray-banded kingsnakes(we have found seven in as many visits to the Trans-Pecos) I remember hearing the term "indicator species" to describe those herps one would be likely to see on nights when alterna would be spotted as well. Truthfully we have seen no pattern that would indicate that this is the case. To the contrary, we found three alterna on Juno Road the first night of summer in 2004 when they were the only three herps we saw all night. We caught a light blairs phase on the s-curves as the sun was setting, and caught the other two between 1:54 and 1:57 in the am. All three were found within a radius of one half mile. We have seen no consistency in predominant species we have seen on the nights we found the other four, either. While there may be other herpers who feel that the indicator species theory is true, it hasn't been for us. Hopefully your question will spark more discussion and will help us all to be better educated in the hows of acquiring these slithering gems.

The few alterna I've taken have been the only snakes seen during the night, and 2 of them have been on windy, moonlit nights. Looking back over the years,it does seem that when any of the colubrids were out, multiples of the same species could be seen, ie. 5-6 subocs, 4-5 emorys, 3-4 getulus, etc., each species in a single night in just a few hours.

Like the others have said, its all luck. I am very persistent, and will road hunt until sunlight. Last year, I found 3 Gray Bands well after 4:00am. You really need to search rock cuts. The graybands eat the crevice spiny lizards, which you can find on any given cut. At night, you will see the black and white stripped tails hanging out of cracks in the cuts. Be persistent and keep looking. Like we all say, night hunting is the best down there, unless you find a good area to flip rocks, but good luck on that. I see alot of snakes that are run over, so you need to drive slow, and if it looks like a worm in the road, pull over and check. 75% of the time, its a snake.

since '77...i've found the best indicator species for alterna are.......drum roll......ALTERNA.....they're where and when you stumble across'em