Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is a Wandering Garter Snake, Thamnophis elegans vagrans, I photographed on a recent trip through Utah. The animal was found in the desert outside of Moab near the foothills of the La Sal Mountains. The habitat was a stock tank being fed by a small irrigation canal. The tank had a few tadpoles (species unk) and a few larger fish were seen to jump in the center of the pond. No forage fish were seen around the shoreline. The species was also common at higher elevations in the La Sal Mountains.

Randy

This is the stock tank where the snake was located.

This is one of many Wandering Garter Snakes I encountered while camping in the La Sal Mountains east of Moab Utah. The habitat was high elevation meadows not too far below timberline. This meadow held a lot of Garters and it had a small shallow pond. The pond was also home to Northern Leopard Frogs, Rana pipiens, and their tadpoles. I will post a picture of in the frog forum. The pond would no doubt either dry out or freeze solid in winter as it was only 8 to 10 inches deep. It harbored no fish at all. I was hoping to observe Tiger Salamander larvae, Ambystoma tigrinum, but none were present. The date was early July and while tadpoles were present no eggs were seen. One Garter was observed to have just eaten, probably a tadpole. Of the many snakes caught none attempted to bite and only one musked. None of the snakes were collected but I almost wish I had kept this beautiful individual. (see next post as well)

Randy

I observed a relatively large Garter crawling under a rock in the same La Sal Mountain meadow as the previous post. I lifted the rock to see the first snake heading down a hole located to the left and just out of the picture. There were also these two others under the same rock. The snake in the upper left of the photo is not melanistic but it is opaque. The lower snake turned and headed down the hole but the opaque individual was indecisive as to what direction to head. It darted in several directions but did not attempt to travel any distance. I helped him find the hole not wanting to compromise its safety by leaving it in the open or risk injuring it when replacing the rock. The larger first snake was badly scared from an encounter with a predator and had a significant length of its tail bitten off. I saw him again the following day. I also witnessed two snakes in my campsite displaying breeding behavior.

Snakes revenge: I attempted to catch one Garter in my camp site but without my reading glasses on I failed to recognize the stinging nettle it was in. The snake crawled away leaving me with a very significant burning sensation in my hand. The pain subsided after an hour or two but my hand remained very numb and tingly for the following two days. Go ahead and laugh. I did.

Randy