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Here's a new addition I picked up today. 06 male blk rat, Virginia locality. The Va. black rats tend to be solid black, to almost solid black as adults, and this young one is already pretty darn black. Thanks for looking.

Steve

That is a very dark animal for an 06. Is that the animal you got from DG last year? That is one great looking Black Rat.

Thanks. This blk rat is not the one from Dwight. But what's interesting is this one seems to be every bit as black as the one I got from Dwight. I tend to think this specimen is a tad darker then what the DG rat was at the same age.
Steve

>>That is a very dark animal for an 06. Is that the animal you got from DG last year? That is one great looking Black Rat.

Steve,

Thats a nice looking youngster. I am really wanting a Black Rat, but living in OH, I dont know if I can legally keep one. Who produced that one?
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I'm not positive on Oh. law, but I do know two of the best ratsnake breeders are close to you. Dwight Good in Ky. produces some outstanding black rats, as well as other obsoleta. Also Mike Jolleff is another breeder who works with top quality black ratsnakes, and he lives in Ohio.
This Black Rat I received came from a women who runs a petstore in my area. She picked this blk rat up at one of the herp shows, and it was listed as Virginia locality black rat. She forgot the specific county, so she's going to double check with the vendor and let me know what it is.

Steve

>>Steve,

Thats a nice looking youngster. I am really wanting a Black Rat, but living in OH, I dont know if I can legally keep one. Who produced that one?

Great looking snake. Its amazing, I have several kentucky local black rats and they are a huge contrast to that snake. They are really light in pattern. So close in locallity you would think they would be closer.

Peter VE
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Through physical pain comes spiritual enlightment.
Praise the Cabbage.
Never doubt me!

How true Peter. For some reason, Kentucky has some very interesting & unique black rats. It's almost the norm to see blk rats in Ky. that are brownish, with a heavy pattern. I went herping last year with some of the guys in the Ky herp society, and we ended up finding one Blk Rat. Sure enough, he was a nice brownish, heavy patterned rat. Beautiful animals, yet totally different looking then what we have here in Va.

>>Great looking snake. Its amazing, I have several kentucky local black rats and they are a huge contrast to that snake. They are really light in pattern. So close in locallity you would think they would be closer.

Who did you go herping with if I might ask? I am in the herp society and have been since its inception. perhaps we have met and we just dont know it
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Through physical pain comes spiritual enlightment.
Praise the Cabbage.
Never doubt me!

I drove up last spring, May 06 from Virginia, and met up with Brian Baker to do some weekend herping. Saturday, the first day it was Brian and myself, along with Jim Scharosch & Mike Pingleton. Jim & Mike were two guest speakers for the May herp society meeting. Jim spoke about herping in Kansas, and Mike did a presentation on herps in Southern Illinois. There was also third guest speaker at that meeting, Jeff LeClere. He talked about herping in the great state of Minnesota.
Sunday we went out in the field for a second day of herping, and met up with the rest of the gang. Will, Phil, Wes, Clay, Barry & Ben. I also attended the May 06 herp meeting. Link below to that weekend. The photos are from Jim Scharosch's website.

>>Who did you go herping with if I might ask? I am in the herp society and have been since its inception. perhaps we have met and we just dont know it
Link

The Black Rats I've found in Virginia are very typically colored. Pictured is a Charles City County, Virginia locale adult snake I caught in April. It is very representative of the Black Rats I've found on the peninsula (Newport News, York County and Hampton, as well as New Kent Counties). I can't tell it apart from Black Rats I've found in Norfolk and Chesapeake. Juveniles I've found are traditionally colored and highly patterned. Any idea of a more specific locale for that dark snake in your picture?

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Here is my back yard. I live and work on a private ranch in the Flint Hills of Kansas. There is not much agriculture because the soil is so rocky. There is cactus and has the feel of the desert. The ranch is 8 square miles of rocks, trees and streams. The driveway is 7 miles long and there are no houses or any hint of civilization out here. Thought you might like to see the habitat emoryi and obsoleta live in out here. I found this obsoleta just after the sun set today…………Bill

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Nice post, and great field pics and report, Bill! I love to see and hear about habitat where rat snakes are found, and even better to see the animals which live there. That obsoletus reminds me of many Texas rats (P. obsoletus lindheimeri) that I've seen. Here's a pretty bad pic of a female from Montgomery County, TX. Second photo is a TX rat inside a fissure, in a dead willow tree stump. Third is a shot of the willow stump. This was in Nueces County, TX which may be the farthest south, in Texas, that obsoletus ranges. This particular area is in the lower Nueces River floodplain, and has some fairly dense willow woods, wild grape-vine and swampy pools and ponds. The majority of the surrounding areas are semi-arid mesquite and prickly pear scrub, where Texas rats and P. emoryi meahllmorum (thornscrub rats) can also be found.

-Toby

I wish I could visit the flint hills. I will be in K.C. this weekend but I suppose that getting engaged is more important than field herping I seem to remember someone saying that they flipped 20 emoryi in an hour in the flint hills. I have been searching 3 seasons and haven't flipped a single one. S.W. MO is not the best place for them I suppose......
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"Have you ever tried simply turning off the T.V., sitting down with your kids... and hitting them?"

>>Here's a new addition I picked up today. 06 male blk rat, Virginia locality. The Va. black rats tend to be solid black, to almost solid black as adults, and this young one is already pretty darn black. Thanks for looking.
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>>Steve

Nice black Steve.Already a smoker.
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If lead paint is so deadly why do they make it so delicious?