Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We were on vacation in Montana and found this snake along a rocky shore of the Clark Fork River. I saw the snake first, then realized he had a fish in his mouth! There was another brown, larger snake nearby that my wife and I were both sure was a Northern Water snake, but I'm less sure about this one. I posted these in the 'what kind' forum but am not sure how much traffic that gets. Regardless, I thought it was a cool nature moment to catch on film...


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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

Very nice pictures, indeed. If you were in Montana, I do not believe that you'd find a northern water snake there- they are an east coast species. It looks like the one you have photographed is a garter snake, however, I am not familiar with the western subspecies and their range.
Now if they would only build viewing platforms to observe this sort of behavior like they do for grizzlies...
daveb

Here is the other brown one that looked like a northern water snake to me...

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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

hey Eddie,thats a Garter snake,both Garters and Ribbons are fish and frog eatters(rodents too).Cool find!good thing the Water snake didnt start sharing that fish on the other end,probably would consume the Garter along w/ the fish.Chris
maybe the garter was eatting the fish backwards for quick release in case of unexpected guests

We both commented on how a mouse backwards is one thing, but a fish backwards has GOT to be more than a little uncomfortable!!
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

i agree fish spines could hurt ,but in the swamp ive seen catfish spins protruding the sides of watersnakes,and here is a pic of a gator that looks like he was tired of being a Burms lunch and gave it one final thrashing

Holy crap, what am I looking at there?!? Snake eating a gator head first, gator thrashes and rips the snake open? Hard to see, but either way, that is an epic battle. I'd put that up there with King Kong and the T-Rex!
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

id say your diagnosis is correct,that snake should have listened to his mom and squeeze your food at least 15 times

Both snakes are Wandering Gartersnakes (Thamnophis elegans vagrans), rather adept at capturing fish. Nice pics.

Cheers,

Bob

Bob is dead on! You've found a wandering garter (Thamnophis elegans vagrans) which are quite common here in MT. As far as I'm aware, they hold the elevation record for reptiles in the state with one population being found just below 10,000'. Great photos, and I hope you had a blast here.

-Cole Grover
Billings, MT

We sure did have a blast, what a wonderful state. I know you're used to it, but I have some photos on my blog of our trip. I really, really love Montana...

http://www.flyfishin.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the snake info, everyone.
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

Awesome pics... I was just checkin out your blog...
If you decide to go to Yellowstone, take at least a week to be there... You won't be disappointed... The next time I go out, I'm takin 2 weeks to camp and hike and probly still won't see everything I want too...
I definately needed more then one day there, even if it is snowing...

I swear, I was only half as pissed as I look in this picture...

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"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
0.1 Mali Uromastyx

Thanks! I really want to see Yellowstone! Next year for sure...
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

You won't be disappointed...
My only complaint was it was snowing on Memorial Day and the park was packed with people...
That and the girl that was with me was complaining the entire trip...
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"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
0.1 Mali Uromastyx