Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In the last couple of days I have found tons of garters along the Missouri River. I found two breeding balls today, but only had my camera with me for one of them. Take a close look at the last picture, there are snakes all over. I hope you enjoy these pictures.

Thanks for looking,
D.E.

You are the man! Awesome pics.

Dan,Those are some cool pics!I've never seen so many snakes in one spot!Are those wandering garters? I would like to see that red-sided right after a shed, Thanks for sharing!, Jeff

Thanks Jeff,
Those are wanderings. There were so many out yesterday that I lost count at 35. I'm going back out today, I'll try to get some pics of the nice looking plains we have here to show you.

Dan

Wow, that must have been really cool to see. I've never ran across any kind of snake mating in the wild. congrats!!!
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Muhammad Ali

Great pics! I've had a few encounters with garter breeding balls--one was right under a townhouse I was renting in the far exurbs, surrounded by forest. I heard the neighbors screaming early on a Sunday morning and ran outside, only to find a big ball right on my front porch! I ended up keeping the first male to break away from the ball, on the grounds that the Darwinian odds were against him anyway. He was a gentle snake, I named him Romeo because of how I found him, but the three big females in this ball were the meanest Juliets I've ever seen. They each refused to leave after the gentlemen departed and coiled up under the garden hose and hedges, hissing and striking at anything that came near for the rest of the morning. I have great pics of this but unfortunately none digital.

I also had a big gravid female give birth in my hands one morning. I couldn't ID gravid females by sight back then--she was just the biggest garter I had ever seen and I rished to pick her up! When I realized what I was interrupting I backed away quietly, but I must say it was a pretty amazing experience!

Dan,

Those are some very cool shots, thanks for posting! How many males vs. females would you say each ball had?

Scott

I've found a few different balls in the past few days in a few different areas, and while I couldnt get anywhere close to an exact count, I'd say the biggest ball (found today) had about 30 wanderings in it with only a few females. I'll get some pics of the other wandering balls, plains garters, & red sideds found recently posted soon.

Thanks,
Dan

Dan,

That is really cool, I saw one mating ball of Butlers as a teenager. My friend noticed a tire w/ a squiriming mass within the liner, we pulled them out and there were about 20 males and 1 female. Even after we pulled them out, most went right back to breeding.

Scott

Scott,
Yah, most of the balls I've seen look to only have one female. The huge one I found this year was right outside of a den at a place called West Bank Park. I was on my lunch brake, and didnt have my camera.
I've been going out to the Rivers Edge Trail to try to find a breeding ball of wanderings that might have a melanistic or two in it to show you, but so far no luck.

Dan