Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When cruising roads at night looking for snakes to take pictures of, road and air temperature wise, when do you decide its time to head home. I am asking both about alterna in west Texas and annulata and other colubrids in south Texas. Especially, in south Texas when I am only hunting an hour or so from the house, and have other nights that I can observe on. Basically, I want to optimize my time.
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South Texas Herps

Well, out in the Trans-Pecos, I start to get discouraged when it drops much below 70 (air temp), and usually give up below 65. But I think this is mainly because I like to see a variety of snakes-if I were just after alterna I'd hang in a lot longer, because I know they have often been found at least down into the low 60s.....
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

FYI....Observed an annulata at 71°F and a glossy at 67°F in south Texas the other night. I think the road temp is important too. If it got to 95°F ambient temp during the afternoon, the residual pavement heat would be warmer at a 65°F air temp than if it was only 80°F ambient temp during the day and dropped down to 65°F.

Travis

Agree with both there, Mike, I call it quits down here at 70, but like Travis said, the road temps can produce for a few hours more, plus I think anulatta are like Brad says alterna may be, a little more cold tolerant. But 70 seems like the number for me, west Texas can drop quick, but the road temps will help a lot for other species than alterna. Who knows how hot those cuts really are?
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Todd Hughes

Who knows how hot those cuts really are?

July 1, 2007 at 11:22 pm

It was a warm night, but not that unusual for a dry July night.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Who knows how hot those cuts really are?

People with temp guns know. At least the surface temps, anyway. I'd be interested in seeing a) how far into the underground labyrinths the snake go during the day or off-season and b) what kind of cues they use to determine when to come out, since if they're in deep enough, the temperature/humidity light penetration is fairly constant.

I try to take surface temps of both sides of a cut (each side of the road), especially on north-south roads since the eastern cut should be warmer (facing the afternoon sun), to see if it makes a difference on snakes found. The problem with this is that I hardly find any snakes.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

I've found annulata moving in S. TX in late March/April with temps of 55F, assume the road was about the same.
I seldom see alterna when the temps are below 70 but have found a few males in the 60's, coldest was, I believe, 64F. I've also found subocs moving in march/april with fairly cool temps but not moany.

np
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South Texas Herps