Reptile & Amphibian Forums

No matter how many I see, the common garter snake always puts a smile on my face. This young guy seemed happy to strike.... a pose.

Pretty distinct stripe. Any full body shots?
-----
Joe

No sorry, I snapped a few head shots and sent him on his way.

The reason I ask is that it looks like it may be a ribbon snake by those photos. A full body shot would be more conclusive.
-----
Joe

I'm pretty sure it was a Garter as it had two dots on top of it's head and no white spot in front of the eye.

Garter vs Ribbon Snake

Cool. I agree more than likely it is a garter. Just has a "ribbon look" to it in those photos focusing on the head.

I found a huge gravid garter yesterday while out looking for milks, but I didn't have a camera with me. Here's a bad cell shot of one from a couple weeks ago.

-----
Joe

Definitely a (very nice) garter. An easy way to differentiate eastern garters from ribbons is by checking the scale row of the lateral stripes. A ribbon snake's stripe is on the 3rd & 4th scale row above the ventral scales. An eastern garter's stripe is on the 2nd & 3rd scale row above the ventral scales.

However, this doesn't work with all garters. There are other species of Thamnophis besides ribbons (i.e. plains garters) that also have stripes on the 3rd & 4th row.

Just curious, where was it found? I've seen black garters like that in Massachusetts.

P

I found it in Southwest Wisconsin near the Iowa border.