Reptile & Amphibian Forums

On my second lap today at Arbor HIlls nature preserve I came across a 3' texas rat. Picked him up cautiously with my bike gloves on and he calmed down after a few minutes. Made no attempt to bite whatsoever. Thought about taking him home but ended up letting him go on the quiet side of the park. Neat animal, looked like a brown corn snake. I think he was maybe 2 years old. Maybe there will be a digital camera under the tree this year so I can get some pics off for you guys.

What cameras do you guys recommend? Seems like I need at least a 2x zoom and 2 or 3 megapixels.

>>On my second lap today at Arbor HIlls nature preserve I came across a 3' texas rat. Picked him up cautiously

Is that legal within the confines of the preserve?

You wouldn't pick up the ones around here (San Antonio) unless you want to become a blood donor--they're vicious!

re: digital cameras--I've been happy with my Canon PowerMax G2--4 megapixels, something like 6x zoom. What you don't have in zoom, you can make up for with megapixels (in my experience anyway) and crop what you don't need. Canon's up to the G5 model now and the prices keep dropping.

Check out my web site for examples of pics--the Texas page has a lot of my digital camera pics (even cropped they still have a lot of detail--close-up of Rough Earth Snake head at http://www.mcmartinville.com/chris/reptiles/trips/texas/earth.htm for example). I was trying to find some of my larger-size pics for better examples but I'm not at my primary computer right now.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

If it was a ratsnake that looked like a brown corn and it calmed down at all there is a very good chance it was an Emory Ratsnake.
Ed