Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've got a week of 4-midnight shif so its time for a few daylight hours in the field. I didn't find a lot but I did manage a few nice animals. Hre's the first. A large Desert Tortoise. He was all of 20 feet from his appparent burrow.

I was actually tempteed to keep this Sonoran Gopher. He had some real nice colors.

That is an interesting gopher. Love the tortoise too!

How do you go about herping in the day? Ive never seen snakes in the day, Ive only had luck at night.

For a lot of snakes, the high temp is why you see them at night during the summer. Gophers, many Rattlers and other snakes are active around-the-clock in good conditions. Although we haven't had any rainfall to help out, the temp is more tolerable now - just like in Spring. It was about 80 degrees at 10AM when I found that Gopher. On the other hand, he was the only one I saw that morning. I put in an hour each at 2 separate areas. Overall, I was pleased.

Ive been out in the morning with temps like that, still havent seen any. Just lots of lizards. A few weeks ago, I went to what I thought was a good spot, but we only saw lizards. It was fairly cool when we arrived but warm when we were leaving. I think we searched for 4 hours, and that included looking in rock crevices and flipping boards. No snakes.

Maybe your timing is just off. It doesn't take long for a snake to move out of your line of vision. I made a quick 40 minute pass through the same area this AM and just missed a chance to photograph a gorgeous 6-foot Gopher. As I was driving up, he was going down (his hole). That was at 1100 and it wa about 78 degrees..

Was that in the Mojave?
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

This guy was actually in a mountain wash in Saguaro National Monument (west section). I don't have a perfect elevation but he was at least 500 feet higher than the surrounding desert.

Being in Saguaro National Park (it was upgraded from national monument status years ago), you're lucky you didn't collect the gopher snake. It would have been illegal. There are plenty of legal places to collect gophers around Tucson, and they are abundant. Greg

but only the Tort was in Saguaro. The Gopher was down by the Santa Ritas.

been more specific about the "second place." Thanks for the reminder just the same.

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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Very nice. How are their numbers there?? Any sign they are holding their own? Losing ground?
:Mark

I'm not really sure how they are doing. I'm in Tucson and new to the area. I just got here in July. This is my first DT. I'm definitely hoping/expecting to see more. I have heard 3 stories this year of Torts that got picked up by folks who didn't realize what they were doing so, for the most part, thats a good sign. At lest it speaks to numbers.