Reptile & Amphibian Forums

With all of the discussion of locality breeding, I wanted to share my collection of BSR WC alterna. I had been very fortunate to be able to spend a huge amount of time on BSR, and amass this collection, despite the road's well earned reputation as a tough hunt.

I separate my animals into two separate breeding groups, the Lower Ranch and Upper Canyon. I decided to split the locales, even though BSR is generally referred to as a single locality, and the greatest distance between my animals is less than 4 miles, because I wanted to preserve the genes of the Lower Ranch. It is my opinion that the majority of captive BSR are descendants of Upper Canyon animals. They seem to display the the more "typical" BSR patterning and coloration indicative of the Upper Canyon, and this is where I have observed a higher concentration of both snakes and herpers.

BSR is a pretty decent stretch of habitat (just under 11 miles), and alterna have been observed from the top of the road, to the end (a friend observed a DOR male in a predominantly grassy section at about the half-way point of the road), so there are a few other micro-locales that I believe need to be represented, but until the road-ban is overturned, this is what I have...

The animals are shown in order from east to west.

Lower Ranch animals were collected within 1.25 miles, with potential breeding pairs separated by a maximum of .8 miles, and minimum of .25 miles.

Lower Ranch Male

Lower Ranch Female

Lower Ranch Female

Lower Ranch Male

Lower Ranch Male

This is a photo of a deceased male that came from the "Million Dollar Canyon" stretch that separates the Lower Ranch and Upper Canyon. Unfortunately, this was the only specimen I had seen from there.

Upper Canyon animals were collected within .7 miles, with potential breeding pairs separated by a maximum of .7 miles, and a minimum of .2 miles.

Upper Canyon Male
This male was given to me. Thanks, to everyone who was involved.

Upper Canyon Male

Upper Canyon Male

Upper Canyon Male

Upper Canyon Male

Upper Canyon Female

John

John, Excellant collection of graybands from a tough Davis mtn. locale, thanks for all the photos you posted. John F.

... that's an understatement, lol! There were MANY fruitless nights, as many herpers have experienced, but all the time out there gave me a pretty good idea of when it was a waste of time hunting, which, not surprisingly, was quite often.
I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. I hope to update these with some higher grade photos that better represent the animals, in the near future.

John

Awesome collection of alterna Mr Craft!! Never even realized there were 2 distinct areas. Of course I usually got there at dusk or later and never realized the differences I guess. I would venture that not many people have since this is the first I've ever heard about it. Good for you for dedicating so much time to such an isolated place to "observe" alterna. All I've ever found are leps and pics. The photo reps are really interesting to see. Thanks for posting your expertise on this area. A BA

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the collection.

>> All I've ever found are leps and pics.

I imagine that's a common occurrence for most herpers, if they are fortunate to see that much. As I said, I had MANY fruitless nights, and my success was based largely on the total amount of hours spent during ideal conditions.

The reason most herpers wouldn't realize that there are different areas, is because the alterna farther east seem to only cross the road under a very particular set of conditions. Whereas the upper canyon is right smack in the middle of prime habitat, the Lower Ranch only borders the foothills on the south side of the road. I have been present on evenings where other herpers have collected alterna, each time they were found in the upper canyon.

John

Those are some GREAT looking animals John.. Hell, I even like the dead one... Thanks for posting!

Although there have been some differences in opinion regarding some of our topics over the past few days.. I am very happy to see some great new photos and the increased traffic here on the forum.

Hope all is well!

~ Mike Russo

I had no idea that this many had been found on Boy Scout. Very cool.

On the first night of my first ever trip to west Texas we found one crossing in the flat area, just a few hundred yards off the highway. Very odd place to find a GBK. I remember thinking to myself, "hell, this is easy - they must be everywhere". Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for #2, after dozens of trips back to the area.

I still love Boy Scout - found my first pict there, too. The upper canyon is just a really cool place to be at night.

Mark, I feel for you-been there dozens of times, found Leps, emorys, subocs-no alterna yet! One big problem in the last couple years is that we've been plagued by cold nights in the Davis-even in July! Tremper and I were out there this past July for four nights, and it never got warm enough to hit Boy Scout at all...Spent our time on RR and BG.

One useful observation-the Canyon section is often about 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the Davis. Frequently we've retreated there at the end of the night when everywhere else was too cold (I know it's entirely possible to find snakes below 64 degrees, but that's just the point I myself start to lose confidence )
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

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

You know, Brad, I've never really felt like I was missing out on anything, not finding alterna. They've never been a big "target species" for me, not that I have ever really had any "target species". For some odd reason, I've always been mostly immune to the allure of graybands and tricolors, much preferring crotalids and getula kings, if I had to prefer anything.

I'm sure that if I put a concerted effort into it, I'd be able to come up with #2, but after all these years, I just go because I love being in west Texas and spending time with my friends out there. If I see any herps at all, it's icing on the cake. Without question, the most memorable things I've seen in west Texas were NOT herps, and my most memorable trips weren't the most successful from a herping standpoint.

And I'll bet you know exactly where I'm coming from, too. One of these days, I'll find #2, and #3, and I'm sure I'll be tickled to see them. But I'd get a lot more excited about seeing a live Gyalopion or a west Texas Diadophis, just because those would be firsts for me.

That post read like I'd written it myself-no wonder we get along....

I actually saw a live hooknose just a couple miles south of the entrance to Boy Scout, in '06. And I was definitely stoked!
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

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

Nice collection of BSR. Thanks for sharing those. I've been up in there a handful of times and it's nice to see what I've been looking for. Nice up there in the upper canyon. Wish we could get further up in there.