Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thought you might enjoy seeing an alterna from Mexico I field collected under a rock in 1980 in a mountainous area between Monclova and Saltillo in 1980. I hope the link comes thru. I haven't tried posting images before. If not, you can see it and several others on my website that's under construction:

http://home.mindspring.com/~hwallace1/

Enjoy! --Henry W.

L. alterna from Coahuila

Hey Henry, thanks for the pics. I met you in the 70's or early 80's at Villa De La Mina, before I moved there in 84. Who collected the dark alterna from Luna vista? I have a copy of that pic that I got from Makin or B. Haase back in the 70's or 80's. Anyway, thanks for sharing and good to hear from you.
Later
Rick Green

Hey Rick, great to hear from you! The black alterna was one I collected. It was an amazing snake. In ordinary light you could not see the alternating black bands, just the brilliant orange against black. What ever happened to Bob Makin? Is he still spending half his life running the roads in that Datsun B210 with, let's see...it had 400,000 miles on it the last I saw him...must be 1.5 mil now? So you live at Villa de la Mina?

Cheers,
Henry W.

Cool snake, is that the one that was on top of the mud cut at the bottom of the north side of the north hill?
I have not seen Mackin in a few years. I hear he is collecting around Sierra Blanca. Last time I saw him on the road was in about 1990 and he was in his mother's car wich was this huge cadillac or lincoln or something like that, but it was in a spot where almost nobody collects at about 2 in the morning and I saw this car 3 or 4 times so I stopped and sure enough it was Mackin.
I lived at Villa De La Mina for most of the 80's but was forced to move back to reality when my Daughter started High School. At the time the school only went through the 8th grade and then they were bussed to Alpine. I could not do that to her, so I could stay and hunt snakes, so here I am.
Would like to hear more about Mexico alterna and what happened to you.
Later
Rick

Hey Rick,

No go for west Tex for me last weekend. Saw 36 snakes out here the last two nights. Hope you and Melissa were safe last week from Katrina effects?

More soon bro. later, Hugh

But I would love to see it.

Brad

I went to his web site, some cool stuff.
Later
Rick

Sorry about that with the pic. I've got some glitch between my Earthlink web page and this forum. Until I can figure out what the problem is please go to the website link and you can see the pics I have up so far there:

http://home.mindspring.com/~hwallace1/

Rick: The black alterna was on top of the north hill in the relatively flat stretch. It was absolutely awesome seeing this ghostly set of brilliant orange spots moving along when I could hardly see the black. He regurgitated 2 snake eggs shortly after capture -- the size of kingsnake eggs but I couldn't tell species and they did not have identifiable embryos in them. I never caught one on the north side of the hill but did get one in a bush once atop the hill and another at the base of the south side of that hill. Thanks for the update on Mackin. I wonder how many he's turned up in the Sierra Blanca and it would be fun to see what they looked like? He caught a LOT of alterna. He had a black one that was a duplicate of the one I have on the website. Has anyone been collecting in the Cuatro Cienegas or Saltillo areas of Mexico? It would be very interesting to see more from those areas. Probably none that are legal though!

Cheers,
Henry W.

Let me give this another try. Here's photos in order:
1. A 1974 alterna from Big Hill on the River Road
2. The black alterna from Luna Vista we've been talking about caught in 1975.
3. A DOR (aaaahhhhgggg! after many fruitless nights) alterna from just north of Saltillo Mexico.

Best,
Henry W.

Henry,
How would you feel about sending me a high res file of that Saltillo snake for the Alterna page and so I can make a print.

We found a DOR in the same spot in '97. All those Saltillos look pretty much like that one. Hobart's snake was a real screamer BTW.

Any more alterna photos from Ole Mexico?

Forks