Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Went birding in the Davis Mts (west TX) last weekend and managed to work in an evening herping. Best herp of the night was this little male Mexican Hog found AOR at dusk -

Also found this wanna-be hognose (Desert Hooknosed Snake - Gyalopion canum) -

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Chris Harrison

I wish I could go out and find one of those! I'm stuck up here in Oregon. I don't do much herping here but when I lived in El Paso I went out almost every day. Nice hog!

Did everyone here used to live in El Paso????

I was there getting my MS from 89-91. I herped my ass off!
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Chris Harrison

Did you go to UTEP? If so Robert Webb is my uncle.

>>Did you go to UTEP? If so Robert Webb is my uncle.

Robert G. Webb (Bdee, Bdee, Bob) was the cochair of my thesis committee. I was his last grad student before he retired (it wasn't my fault!).
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Chris Harrison

I went to EPCC and lived near Transmountain. This was 96-97 and then again from 98-00. Not to mention 1978-1980.

Unfortunately, I did no herping at those times.

I am going to have to get up there one of these days. Did you keep this one? Was he bigger than your male you caught last yr?
Nice Hog
Stacey(Odessa,TX)
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or

Stacey,

Good to see you still getting chiming on the hog forum!

Of course I picked him up! How can I resist a kennerlyi!

This male is a little larger than my male from last year. Last year's male (from the west side of the Davis Mts) was probably a young of the year or a yearling (it only weighed 8 grams). This snake is considerably larger (and weighs 24 grams). He is from the north side of the mountains.

Now I have an excuse to do more hog hunting this summer!

Chris
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Chris Harrison

Great find, Chris! I have never seen one so dark! Do different locales produce different colors, or are they pretty jumbled like the platyrhinos?

A.C.

>>Great find, Chris! I have never seen one so dark! Do different locales produce different colors, or are they pretty jumbled like the platyrhinos?
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>>A.C.

In my experience, young kennerlyi (and nasicus in general) start out darker then lighten up as adults. However, I have two kennerlyi from this area and both have very dark blotches. Further south and east they tend to be lighter, as do snakes from the far western part of the range (S. AZ).
This population probably experiences colder weather than other kennerlyi due to the higher elevations at which they are found. Maybe that explains the dark spots. Or maybe that is another Kiplingesque "Just So" story?
You don't see the sort of variation in nasicus that you do in platirhinos, IME.
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Chris Harrison

good point on the colder temps!

thanks for the reply