Hello all,
i am born and raised on staten island, new york city. back in the mid 1980s, staten island was still largely forested and acres of "sand flats". my friend and i used to catch some of the biggest garters (sirtalis i believe) we've ever seen, or known. i can guess some were well over 4 feet. i have a pic and will post it when i return from my business trip. now a days, the island is largely developed, and much of the original land that supported the wildlife was cleared to make rows of town houses, and other crap. recently, we decided to go see if we could find anything. the sand flats near the ocean were our choice hunting grounds so we ventured there. unfortunately we didnt see any garters. small american toads, 1/2 inch long were common so we felt if there are some garters left, they must be eating them. we will check it out again soon. brown dekays snakes are also very common and even found in our back yards under debris or wood. they are pink or salmon colored below, with typical drab brown above. thanks for bringing back many memories. i used to keep and breed albino checkered garters, and photos can be seen of them on my website www.cybersalvator.com. its a site geared towards asian water monitor lizards but in the gallery you can find the albino garters. i believe they are in the misc. section. i found they were extremely hardy and even ate cooked chicken once in a while, as well as small adult mice. my female, almost 25 inches long, gave birth 2x in summer of 2001. cheers, -john a
cybersalvator.com