Reptile & Amphibian Forums

tokaysmice,
Concerning your post of 4/30, might I inquire what part of central Oregon were you finding S. Alligator Lizards? If it was south of The Dallas, Oregon in the Deschutes or lower John Day River drainages, that would be within the known range of the species. But elsewhere in central Oregon might represent a new locality record. And by the way, what is a "spinytail" snake. Do you mean Sharp-tailed Snake?

Besides T. sirtalis, only T. elegans would be found in central Oregon in the type of habitat shown in one of your posts.

Richard F. Hoyer (Corvallis, Oregon)

man herpers are tuff a tuff crowd! the southern alligator lizard was found in the known range otherwise i would have been alot more excited. I have found the terrestrial and the common garter here. yes i did mean sharptailed snake wich i do believe could be found in a few pockets in this area not the easiest to get to ones though lol! and i still believe there are some other speciecs that might not be acounted for in this area!

I actually went out yesterday to hunt for some L. zonata in washington but only found a neonate and a young adult P. cantefer and several southern gators. the gophers where in an unusual environment then i've found them any other time.

it sounds like you might work at the school studying local herps
you wanna come out sometime and possitivly identify my finds?

Tokaysmice,
The best field herpetologist in Oregon is Alan St. John of Bend if you need someone to confirm your finds and if you have new locality records. But I am willing to travel to The Dallas area if you believe you have found a species in a new locality. This is the type of information that needs to be confirm and reported.

For instance, I just published a paper dealing with the Sharp-tailed Snake in Oregon updating its occurrence in the state. But east of the Cascades, little has been reported since the early 1970's when I discovered the species at Rock Creek Reservoir and at Tygh Valley. The only other records from that region are in The Dallas proper as report by a couple of ODFW biologists. Other than those three localities, any other sighting east of Portland for that matter would be new information.

And the species has now been confirmed by a BLM herp survey to occur in Klamath County also east of the Cascade Mts. in south central Oregon. Also, although there have been a number of reports of zonata occurring in north central Oregon, none have been confirmed. So should you come across a Mt. Kingsnake in that part of Oregon, please contact either me or Al St. John. I can be contacted at charinabottae@earthlink.net

Richard F. Hoyer

wow--

I miss oregon--remember in the mid 90's when i lived in eugene found a beautiful rubber boa at cougar reservoir