Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Found one last night (or early this morning--1:30am-ish)

Lifer!

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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

Sweet, congrats!!!! That is a killer one too. One of my, if not my favorite ssp.Locale???
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between Amarillo & Fritch TX, off a remote blacktop stretch.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

A sweet & lucrative find, as very few people have ever found gentilis in TX. Congrats...John

John, why is that? Location? are just being the elusive snake? I also don't see any ever posted from Oklahoma either.
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3-4 years of field herping and it's my first milk.

I suspect they're just very elusive, and very nocturnal (based on conversations with a local guy Iknow--he says he found all of his after midnight in the summer, and that "all of his" was a low number).
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

Summer seems to me like a tough time to find them (except at night).....Congrats on the find for sure, would love to be able to herp for them in Texas and Oklahoma. Do you do a lot of searching for them? Or just out in general? Rainy nights or overcast days? Sunny cool days in the spring? Basically any certain type of days do you go out verses others?
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Thanks for asking the question about the Texas gentilis. Of the the 4 different subspecies of milksnakes that occur in Texas, gentilis is indeed the hardest of all to come by. I say this because I have known a number of TX & Non-TX collectors that have found amaura, annulata & celaenops typically over the years, when the weather & ground moisture are favorable for the milks to be at the surface or moving. I have known of intergrades of gentilis to be found to the N & NW of Abilene. True gentilis from TX are from quite arid, isolated counties in the Eastern panhandle of the state. I have driven thru some of those areas in early spring & saw favorable habitat & even checked some accessable locales, finding ringneck snakes & some lizards, much like the gentilis habitat I have found them in in KS. I really think moisture & weather rule whether they are found & it may be a very small window in the spring to be able to find them there in those areas. I think because of the well-known ease of finding gentilis in Central & Western KS, people or should I say the milkheads, typically would go to the easiest place to find them, and TX, where true gentilis occur, is a tough, un-predictable place to go & find them with ease. Other than the gentilis posted in this thread, I personally havent seen anything but intergrades ever found or photoed from TX, yet we know they exist there.

Another really perplexing question that I wish we knew more about, why is it that milksnakes that occur in TX over all areas of that huge state, seem to be absent or never found in much of the Hill country from I-35, South of Dallas/Ft. Worth down to almost San Antonio & then back West aways?? I have been thru alot of the Hill country & counties where there are no records for milksnakes, yet the surrounding countryside has plenty or rocks, cover & food items, anyone got any ideas why milksnakes are not there?? Then again, maybe, just maybe there are some isolated colonies of milksnakes out there in Central TX & no one has simply came upon them, but that seems un-likely, given the interest & number of people in TX. Just some thoughts on this. To really see how devoid the milksnake are in Central TX, take a look in Tennants hardback edition of "The Snakes of Texas", from the 1984 printing if you can. I am sure theres been some new records of milksnakes in TX since that printing, but not sure how many. Later, John

John I think I have your answer, I think most people who drive to texas or live there do not have the milks in that region as a priority when southwest you can find celaenops, annulata, alterna and so forth, amaura are only found because those guys are so far east that west texas isn't as easy of an option. I would not have gentilis as a priority if I were to go all the way to texas, id rather find a celaenops than find a co record gentilis. It would be nice and I do like gentilis, but if I want to find them I will go to where I will find copious amounts of them, now if I happend to be in that area in the right time I would definately look for them, but not going to plan a trip for them. This is probably the main reason. Next spring or this fall we should do amaura, I would and will plan and make a trip for those however.

Brandon DeCavele

for those of us that do live here, they're still rare as hell. 3 years of herping the area and that's my first.

I still ain't found massasuga, eastern hogs (Have seen westerns), racers or diamondback water snakes, all of which occur at least sometimes in my two county area. Found all the other 40 species at least once.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

I was not trying to say your find was not significant or awesome in any way, it is awesome, I love triangulum, I have never found gentilis in texas, I have never found any triangulum in texas. I would think flipping rocks during the spring would be more productive than finding one crossing the road, just because they are secretive snakes, if I tried to road cruise my first syspila I would probably still be driving with nothing to show for. But I have no idea the area or habitat in which you found your nice gentilis at. I also have no idea if you have tried field collecting in the spring for them. At any rate awesome find, nice gentilis, all I was saying if I were to go to texas it would probably not be for gentilis central ks is a lot closer to me, and apparently as much as I hate to say it on the internet a lot more productive.
Cheers
Brandon DeCavele

Oh yeah, I didn't take it like you ragging it I was just saying they're rare.
I've flipped more than I want to think over the last 3 years with a lot of widows, a handful of sheds, and more centipedes than one person should have to see. And a fair amount of lizards.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

" why is it that milksnakes that occur in TX over all areas of that huge state, seem to be absent or never found in much of the Hill country from I-35, South of Dallas/Ft. Worth down to almost San Antonio & then back West aways?? I have been thru alot of the Hill country & counties where there are no records for milksnakes, yet the surrounding countryside has plenty or rocks, cover & food items, anyone got any ideas why milksnakes are not there??"

John, here's just a thought as I never herped Texas or have been able to just yet. Could it be that there are heavier populations of Kings in those areas? Do you find an above average of kings in the Hill Country? If the fact of less snake species altogether in the Hill Country, could it be due to a factor of weather or maybe some sort of radiation or gas that seeps through the ground that keeps most species away......My first thought would be that there is a more dominant species like kings that are more favorable to that area.

As I mentioned before, I am not that educated on herping Texas, but could it also be an area that predominately hunted for the rattlesnake round ups? I understand It's a big state and there's huge amounts of land to cover, but I am just trying to think of theories that may have pushed them elsewhere if they were prevalent there at one time. IDK???

I also have to think that Brandon's thinking of why would I hunt something that is hard to find versus going some where I know my possibilities are greatly enhanced by others who hunted there. It's kinda like fishing, you usually got to your hot spots because your out to catch something, it's only when those spots no longer produce do you venture out to try new ones.

Hopefully I will be able to find sometime before I am dead to venture out to this area and spend sometime hunting gentilis. I am pretty partial to this species as it is my favorite of all NA milks.
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