Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I was wondering who is working with Junos these days? Producing any eggs or better yet, babies, this year? And finally, does any one have any pictures of Junos to share?

I'd love to see pictures of babies or adults.

I appreciate your responses.

Tom Anderson

If I can find a male, then I will be working with them. This girl was collected in the dark of june 06, near midnight. she was on the furthest south S-curve cut.
(not an in situ pic)

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South Texas Herps

That's a nice looking snake. Thanks for posting. It looks a lot like a Loma Alta female I have. What are the chances that some snakes travel that far... or at least their grandsnakes? The habitat seems pretty continuous down those dirt roads from Loma to Juno. Looks like about 15 miles on a map.

Tom

I caught two this year off Dolan Creek Road, which would roughly be the midpoint between Loma Alta and Juno...Both males, unfortunately...

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Snakes to the Max

Nice finds! I remember when you posted about the rain storms, flooding, and setting out on foot in search of the elusive L. alterna. Fit for a TV movie!

JimD and I explored some of the maze of dirt roads back there a little bit. We drove in from the 277 side. We found a lot of gates, private property signs, and one unhappy rancher with a q-beam. We quietly made our way back to the paved road. We saw an emory's a big toad and some jack rabbits while back there.

It's truly amazing how much habitat there is when you get off the beaten path. Perfect looking alterna habitat goes to the horizon in every direction.

The habitat at Loma and the habitat at Juno seems more continuous than some of the other localities.

Tom

Tom, I collected two this year on the north s-curve cuts. The first was a light alterna morph male, and the next day a dark blairs morph male. I'll take a few pics soon and post them.
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Steve W.

Dan Grubb had a nice looking male for sale right here in the alterna classifieds a couple of weeks ago..

~ Mike

That's awesome Steve. What a trip! I can't wait to see the pictures. How far apart were they collected? Cruising or walking?

>>That's awesome Steve. What a trip! I can't wait to see the pictures. How far apart were they collected? Cruising or walking?

The alterna morph was coming from the guard rail going towards the rock cut on the road. My 11 year old daughter spotted it at the same time as me. The blairs morph was on the same cut that the other was was headed towards and we were walking.
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Steve W.

You picked a good night to hang around a rock cut in the desert with a flashlight!

Now you'll have to go back out there and try to observe a female!

Tom

I'll try to observe a female next year.
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Steve W.

Steve, The female in the middle picture is a pure s curve, I found her in 1997 but she is nice and healthy. she laid 11 good eggs this year and should be good to go for some pure s cuve babies next year with yours, especially since we are 20 minutes away from each other!

Also shown are 4 females and a male I held back from 2005, and in another photo, a 2003 female that laid 7 eggs this year (5 are good). I used an alterna morph juno male form seven generations stock to produce the 2005 group and the 2003 female. I bred the 2003 female to a "half brother" alterna male from a Gerry Salmon blairs x seven generations alterna stock.

Jim,

That dark blairs is nice! Which one is that?

The silver gray alterna is really nice snake too.

Tom

Aside from the original female shown, all the other snakes pictured are her offspring crossed with an alterna morph seven generations stock male, the blairs just popped up.

I also produced this male from a breeding between a dark blairs from salmon and the seven generations male.

Nice variety of colors and patterns in the top picture.

Thanks Aaron, this is them 2 years ago, they initially looked very alike, but each changed to a unique tone.

I just checked my other email account. Not ignoring you, I just dont check that one often. I have 2 Alterna 1.1 from Juno. The male is AWESOME! One of those flame orange and light grey ones form Ric Blair, the other is a Dark Alterna morph female. Not ready to breed this year so... Prolly 2 more years I would say.

I hope you are able to find some. I would check the classifieds and recomended breeders. Blair has some nice ones if you can ever get him on the phone and willing to part with a pair...

Good Luck,

Steven Owens

No problem, Steven. I figured you were on the road or something.

I'll send an email.

Tom

My son and I collected three alternas on Juno Road in the same evening in June of 2004. All three were at or near the north s-curve. One of them, a juvie female, passed away soon after we brought her home. However, the adult male and female produced for us last year and this year with 7 and 9 hatchlings, respectively.

During late spring of this year we had another multiple alterna night on Juno Road! We scored a male and a female. They are both just under 30 inches, and we ahould be able to breed them next year. The male was found at the historical marker just south of Baker's Crossing, and the female was found exactly four miles north of Baker's.

It is interesting to note that on both of the evenings we scored multiple alternas, we saw no other snakes. We have learned that on that road you just hang in there. The five were caught at the following times: 9:05 pm, 1:54 am, and 1:58 am (2004) and 12:04 am and 12:38 am (2007).

If you want, we can post pic of the two pairs of alterna. Two are dark (males) and the females are light. One of the females has a black head (four miles north of Baker's).

mssdds