Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, I'm from Missouri, I do quite a bit of herping around the central/south Missouri area, but have yet to encounter a species that's been on my list for a while, an eastern coachwhip. Any tips for where to find them? Thanks,
Kevin

Must be one hard species to find and yet supposedly fairly abundant of those areas you listed. My luck was south Mo. in the Ozarks hills and particular south of Branson or slightly east. All were " accidental " findings as we were not specifically looking for them. We found multiple numbers in the Table Rock area at the south east area of the Dam. There's a road once you cross over the Dam going south opposite the fish hatchery that goes back to the lower level of the Dam as a put in for boats. Just across from the parking/viewing area of the dam there is a valley to your right/south. You know where it is because you can see Bairds Mountain from there to your south. This is where we found the multiples. The reason I'm " giving " this spot away is because as we know, coachwhips are one elusive and hard to find snakes !
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

I'll give that area a shot, thanks very much! About how large were the animals that you found, adults, juvies? Thanks again,
Kevin

Adults. While I have found tons of racers of juveniles and a very very few western coachwhips as juveniles in Ks.Ok,and Texas, I've never found the Mo. species in anything other than adults. Note : almost 90% of all of my coachwhips no matter where were out in the open and never under rocks or cover.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

Coachwhips love glades. Find glades that are as open as possible, flip rocks and you'll find one.

The other day I went out, and literally, there were baby racers EVERYWHERE. I must have found seven or eight in a course of about a half-hour. The last big herping trip I went on was to the glades, I found a shed skin from a massive coachwhip, the thing must've been six feet long at least, but never found the actual snake. I'll give the glades another try on Tuesday, probably.
Kevin

ive been extremely unsuccesful in the glades at night, dusk,dawn, day you name it all i see are gators and turtles.

where will i have better luck at finding snakes?

the big MO ( Missouri ). To be exact by definition that I'm sure Chad will agree with : it's not just the Glades of finding as I have had lived in Missouri for the better of 40 years. Areas would include : > Ozark Border, Ozark Plateau, possibly some of the Osage Plains as reported to me on eastern coachwhips, the Bootheel region, and the recognized but not clearly defined " Glades ". As to where and where. When you think about it and what makes the glades the glades, this could incorporate just south of where I use to live in areas of Osceola to Harry S Truman Res. to Stockton to north and south of Springfield all the way to the Ozarks proper. Remember there are 2 Ozarks. The term of " Ozark " is used erroneously in Missouri. The Ozarks or true Ozarks is of the area of Lake of the Ozarks and in my opinion the true Glades region. The secondary Ozarks is of the Branson area. The " Glades " unfortunately and in my opinion is used to freely as a directional point area and or of mapped area > ? A to massive area > ? A regional area that encompass many areas > ? ( did I repeat myself here ? ) LOL !
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

sorrye it was stupid of me to assume that whenever you say "glades" your talking about the Florida everglades.