Reptile & Amphibian Forums

anybody got any????

I seem to remember Shane Dobson mentioning to me that he had some King Mountain alterna a few years ago. I don't know whether he's actively breeding them, nor whether he still has them. I can look up a contact number for him if you want it.

Robert

Thanks Robert!
I have a dark blairs female that was collected back in September 2001 by one of Joe’s nephew and I. She was collected on the first pass. I then collected a light blairs male about 30 min after that while walking down the road shinning the cut. Still remember I was using a small mag light. The ones that use two AAA batteries. Talk about NOOOO light. I breed them once back in 2006 or 2007, got three out of four eggs to hatch. Sold them as generics to some friends. Lost the male last year and have been looking for another male. She’s just a normal looking dark blairs but I can guarantee her local. And I’m sure that Joe can also if he wouldn’t mind. Do you have any or know of any males out there? I think Mike Price might have collected some also back in the day? Not too sure though.

Shane

Just to throw in a little something to think about...they were both collected on a full moon. Also saw a pic that same nite and three texas banded geckos. All before 10pm. Windy nite. And in September. Not what one would consider perfect conditions.

I can vouch for Shane.

I've only been there once, with my brother. He was saying how it didn't look like great habitat 15 minutes in, and I said maybe not but there's one right there. It's one of the photos on the Sierra Herps site.
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Herp Conservation Unlimited
Conservation through captive propagation
Mexicana Group Directory
Photography by Joseph E. Forks

Np

That reminded me of the first alterna I collected. A friend of mine, my brother and I were hunting BSR in June. There had been rain every evening at the start of the trip, and rain started up early that night. I was ready to move on, but my friend convinced us to hang out. After about 45 minutes sitting in the van and BS'ing, we got in our separate vehicles and resumed. On the first pass back towards the canyon, there were still some bands of light rain. I spotted a small, light colored snake crawling up the left shoulder, in the rain. It turned out to be a yearling female... words cannot describe how surprised and excited I was!

John

Mike Price collected a gravid female from Castle Mtn., just to the west of King Mtn. I bought a pair from him 4 or 5 years ago. I lost the female, 3 years ago I think it was. Anyway, I sold the male to Kevin Rhodes in Lubbock.

First pic is the WC female and the second is the pair I got. The male is the larger darker one.

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South Texas Herps

that says Sierra Herps dot com? click on that, then click on photo gallery / alterna / animals / king mountain - there's five of them in there
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Herp Conservation Unlimited
Conservation through captive propagation
Mexicana Group Directory
Photography by Joseph E. Forks

Bob, talk about taking a stroll down memory lane! The very first light blairs that I saw was in the collection of a school teacher in Crane and was from this particular locality. What a stunning animal!

D.Wuerch and I obtained permission from Ms. Speck who owned several canyons on the northeast side of the mesa. We went there in September of '94 to scope it out, and while we didn't see any alterna that night, we saw several other species, including A.c.pictigaster, B. subocularis, and C. molossus.
It was also where I saw my first alterna in the wild ('95), and although I was not the collector (Wuerch took that honor!), it was still a rush.

When I moved to an area about 2 hours from this locality in 1996, this was one of the areas that I would frequent with regularity. In 1997, I took a good friend of mine from SA to look for alterna, and on his first night out, we found 2!

There were (and yes, I said WERE) three main areas to hunt there on that mesa. The most popular for all of the commercial guys from Lubbock was the west side (radio towers area). There were several found there, including a neat-looking almost alterna phase that Hollister and McAdams found. Most from the west side were always dark blairs with muddy orange. That road was closed down in the late 90's.
The east side was always tricky due to land owners who did not appreciate "hunters" on that road. That held true with the local authorities as well, especially when they were told by McAdams that alterna from there were rare and worth up to $1,000 apiece. The road itself was really neat, nearly one full mile of continuous cuts up the mesa. Most of the animals from this area were also dark blairs, but ones with clean orange showed up from time to time, as well a couple of light blairs. I was there the night Shane caught those two, I was on my way to El Paso and stopped on King Mtn. to see if anything was moving. The light one that they found was really nice. This road was closed sometime around 2003 when they started putting up the wind turbines.
The last area to hunt was by far the most productive for me. It was the Speck Ranch on the northeast side, and although we only got to go out there for a couple of years before Ms. Speck passed, we saw several alterna and most of them were light blairs. On any given night, it would not be uncommon to see up to a dozen pics and 4-5 molossus.

Here are some "old-school" pics from back in the day:
My first alterna to see (not collect) in the wild:

Here is her mate that we obtained in '98:

Here are a couple from the east side road that were pretty typical for this mesa:

Here is the Hollister/McAdams female from the west side (radio towers):

And a couple more from the west side:

Hope you enjoyed my stroll...

Happy herpin'...

MP
And a co

I remember that! Couldnt remember for the longest time who it was we met that night. How did that trans-pecos copper do for you? From what i remember she/he was a very dark specimen. Do you know of anybody working with this local of alterna? You can contact me privately if you would rather.
Thanks,
Shane

Still have that silly pictigaster. It is on exhibit at the San Angelo Nature Center..

I don't know of anyone who is working with that locality anymore, and unfortunately, there probably will not be anyone anytime soon.

Hope all is well...

Happy herpin'...

MP

On a side note mike...just got through with the book i picked up from you at the last SA show...great job...cant wait till the next one comes out.

Shane

??????

this what am i'm mumbling about.......

King mountain was my private sanctuary until I told a few like mike price richard evans ricky tivis and a few others of the bounty of the mountain then it was the hot spot now closed forever that sucke.I collected a few there .The mountain was always best on a full moon always july being the night you would see 25 pictigaster subocs blacktails and many others .Even texas corals.
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Archie Bottoms

Hey Archie... good to see you at the SA show!
I know that you told Richard and Ricky (and you wonder where all of the snakes went!)... however, I found out about King Mountain from Pat Cherryhomes and David Smith. Sorry!

Happy herpin'...

MP

Ok I do remember that .I wish we could still hunt there
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Archie Bottoms