Here is a pic of my latest finds
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W. Michigan w/c Black Rat
AcidFreeze
May 14, 2007 12:12 AM
Replies (10)
ratsnakehaven
May 14, 2007 05:14 AM
Nice find. What county was it in?
TC
fliptop
May 14, 2007 12:02 PM
Wow, now that is stunning! Awesome!
Elaphefan
May 14, 2007 05:19 PM
That is a great looking animal. Are the eyes really black as they appear in the photos?
AcidFreeze
May 15, 2007 12:32 PM
The pic was taken out side with no filters or mods of any kind. The eyes looked exactly as photo. If you look close you'll see my reflection in the eye.
garweft
May 14, 2007 11:58 PM
Black rats are listed as a species of concern and are protected in Michigan. Collecting them can lead to jail time and/or heavy fines.
AcidFreeze
May 15, 2007 12:29 PM
She was caught and released after photographing along with some blue racers and a E. 5 lined skink; But thanx for the concern. I/we catch many species and photograph them, and for the most part release them unless they need some kind of attention.
garweft
May 15, 2007 12:46 PM
That's cool. It's nice to see others who enjoy field herping and photography. The W/C thing just threw me off a little. I'm used to people using W/C to describe ones that they kept.
I haven't seen any black rats yet this year, but I have had a great year so far with salamanders and turtles. Here are pics of a spotted turtle and a melanistic gartersnake that I found so far this year in Ohio. I found a Blandings as well but it was a little shy, so I didn't get any good pics of him.
AcidFreeze
May 16, 2007 02:34 AM
Yeah; perhaps I could and should use more cautious wording. Nice pics. These specimens probibly think we're looons flashing and moving into weird positions to get a better pic or any pic for that matter.
phiber_optikx
May 16, 2007 11:41 PM
I hear of people finding melanistic garters fairly often.. Are they that common?
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.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)
"Have you ever tried simply turning off the T.V., sitting down with your kids... and hitting them?"
garweft
May 17, 2007 09:13 AM
I have only found them in and around the Lake Erie costal wetland areas. Around there they are fairly common, we saw two melanistic ones among the 30 or so normal garters. And let me tell you, the normal garters were some of the largest I have ever seen in the wild. I saw ones that were bigger than some adult cornsnakes.
