Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone.

I recently found a Garter Snake in my Dance Studio. It also happens I know quite a bit about Garter Snakes, and I absolutely love them! I have a Wester Terrestrial Garter Snake, and a Santa Cruz Garter Snake.

I live in a town in Northern California called, "Ukiah." It's the lamest town ever lol. But anyhoo, we have 2 native species of garter snakes here, Wester Terrestrial, and the next one is what I can't figure out. I see these Garter Snakes, all the time in my yard and I adopted the one I found in my dance studio, so now I have 3 Garter Snakes !!

The other species, are what I beleived as the California Red-Spotted Garter Snakes. But, I have been doign som e research on these and theres a bunch more species that look like them! Such as: California Red-Spotted, Red-Sided, and Red-Barred. What I need to figure out, is WHICH ONE IS IT? I looked at pictures of all of these and it looked like all of these! It looked more like one of them in soem ways, or one of the other in other ways. I really need help! Thank you!

If possible, post a pic and that might help...

Red spots don't have lateral stripes .They are have an almost completely black belly.Red sided have a light blueish belly and lateral stripes.Latest I have heard is they are considered the same.Thamnophis conncinus(spelling?).Last I heard the san fran garter is T. Infernilas.Which used to be the red sides scientific name.

Well. I looked at some photos at www.thamnophis.com It looks mainly like Thamnophis Sitalis Infernalis. I looked at Concinnus and it did'nt really look like them. If you look at the infernalis it looks exactly like the second to last photo. I will try to get a pic of my snake asap.

I know about where Ukipah is and you have three species of Garters in that area.

1. Western Terrestrial Thamnophis elegans: Probable subspecies is the Coast Garter T. e. terrestris along the coast or else you may have the Mountain Garter T. e. elegans further inland. They may also hybridize where the two subspecies meet.

2. Common Garter Thamnophis sirtalis: Subspecies near Ukiah are the Calif. Red-Sided T. s. infernalis or maybe the Valley Garter T. s. fitchi. The Oregon Red-Spotted T. s. concinnus is found in Oregon and S Wash. The Red-Sided T. s. parietalis is found in the mid west and Montana. Red Barred is more of a layman’s term and is often applied to any of the red-sided or red-spotted garters so do not trust its application to mean a particular species or subspecies. Tom Dickinson is correct, a few years ago concinnus and infernalis were combined under concinnus and the name infernalis given to the San Francisco Garter T. s. tetrataenia. Last year these three sub specific designations were returned to their former status however.

3. Western Aquatic Garter Thamnophis atratus: Your local subspecies is the Oregon Garter T. a. hydrophilus. You may also be in an area where this snake intergrades with the Santa Cruz Garter T. a. atratus. This intergrade population was formerly known as the Aquatic Garter T. a. aquaticus.

If your snake is dark colored with distinct red spots or “bars” along its side it is probably T. s. infernalis. These will look very similar to the Oregon Red-Spotted T. s. concinnus but slightly more “barred” than “spotted.” Both these subspecies have distinctly red heads while the Red-Sided T. s. parietalis has a basically dark or olive colored head. The Coast Garters T. e. terrestris does have a reddish morph but they look quite different from the sirtalis subspecies and I am not sure if the reddish morph is in your area or not. It can look similar to the red-Sided parietalis.

I hope this helped; I enjoyed typing it and revisiting the research.

Randy

Thanks so mucht hat was so much help !!

I did some research and I'm pretty sure its the CA Red-Spotted T.s.Infernalis. But I was looking at a site with pictures, and there was a couple of different lookign snakes. There was about 3 pictures of CA Red-spotteds that looked like SF Garters, only with black spots in them. And then there was about 2 pictures, with snakes that looked just like the one I have. About the head coloring, i've seen them w/ red heads here. And this one, his head is nainly a dark red but in the middle its a bit greenish. So im guessing this is t.s. infer? He also has a red tounge, ill post a picture of a snake that looks identical to him