Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I actually took this photo quite a while ago and never resized it. I caught this male in 1993. He fathered two clutched this year... one with a WC female from the same cut, and one with a WC female from a few cuts to the east. He was much more gray when he was younger, but as he's aged his orange has bled into his background... making him darker and more "buckskin".

Thats a nice lookin blairs Damon. Is the orange really that bright or is that enhanced a little? Whats the longest you've had a wild caught alterna? I still have a pandale male from 84. Also a juno male from 88 and a captive born juno from 89. Those are my 3 longest lived alternas. I have had several live 14 -17 years but they're usually males. Do you think females "burn" themselves up too fast? Metabolically speaking. Just curious.BA

Brad... I think males are longer lived because they don't have to endure the expensive portion of a reproductive season (producing eggs). That combined with the the fact that most captive alterna get paired and bred every year (sometimes twice per year - YIKES) and captive life takes its toll. I had a fifteen year captive female that I collected as an adult lay a fertile clutch for me this year. She's still doing and looking fine but I don't breed her every year.
Damon

BTW... the photo's true-to-life with regard to color. The gamma's slightly off on the monitor I used to resize and correct the shot so it's probably a bit lighter than it should be (which can make it look brighter), but the color should be pretty darn close.

I collected this female on Juno in 1996 as a 24" sub adult, she is still producing and doing fine 12 years later. I will note I only began breeding her in 2003.

Jim Dobis

Hi Damon,

That snake is incredible! I was hoping on finding one just like it this past Monday night.
I thought I'd run into you down there this past week. I finally met John (and Stu and Adam).
Not ever enough time there.

Casey

We really need to catch up. Email incoming!

Damon,

Is that an east snake?

Scotty

.

Very nice looking blairs. I like how the orange bleeds into the gray. Box has a Limpia Canyon that is doing the same thing.

Damon, are you getting all my e-mails? I am sure you are busy as am I with all these hatchlings but let me know man.
Thanks
Shannon

The last one I got was back at the end of June. Did you send more since then?

Hey Damon,

I also sent you an email a couple days ago...Did you get that??

Max

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Snakes to the Max

I changed my email address a while back so if you used the contact mechanism provided by kingsnake.com then that's why I didn't get it. I just checked and found out that I'd not updated my contact info. It's updated now, but in any case my email address is:

yep, several.LOL..... I even sent one off the e-mail I got from you last.
Please shooit me a e-mail please.

Shannon

n/p
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Snakes to the Max