Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I hesitate to post this since they are rarely answered, but I guess I will go ahead. I will be traveling to South Dakota in a few weeks for vacation. I will be going to Reptile Gardens and doing most of the touristy stuff. I would like to see if I can find any non-confined reptiles along with the ones I see at Reptile Gardens. I know it is late in the season already, but was looking for some ideas of techniques/general locations to look around. I am interested in finding Prairie Rattlers, or anything else actually.

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It's not really too late in the season in SD. They haven't started hitting the hundreds yet. I wish I could tell you specific places to go but I just don't know the area that well. Prairie rattlers are sometimes hard to find and sometimes easy. Most often I find them sitting in the entrance to a burrow dug by another animal or they also curl up into the tufts of grass. You might have luck road spotting in the early morning as they crawl onto the pavement where it's warm at night. We used to get prairie rattlers on our concrete doorstep every night and have to push them off with a broom in the morning to go outside. You might ask when you get up there where a good place to go is.
sorry I can't be more help,
e

np

I don't know where the Reptile Gardens are, but I'd go to the Black Hills if I were going to S. Dakota. It is in the range of the pale milk snake, the Black Hills red-belly, and probably the W. Plains garter, as well as Prairie rattlers that you can probably find night driving. Good luck. TC.