Reptile & Amphibian Forums

He bit me as convincingly as he could manage during this photo shoot,bless his hopper-eating little heart. The photo's not as sharp as I had hoped for so I've either got to get a better camera (or more likely) a better camera-man.

Regards to all
John

What d'ya feed that guy, lemons and bananas?? Great looking animal, John. The yellow sure is having it's way...LOL.

TC

although occasionally I'll throw in a canary.

Thanks. I realized I hadn't taken a picture of him in a year. Problem is even in real daylight I can't get a good photo if my life depended on it. I have to take 30 shots to get one or two that are half-way decent. Hope your summer was good. It's just starting to cool over here but I'm already fantasizing of the cabin fever to come.
Best regards
John

...summer's almost over. I had a good one, but it went fast. Dreamin' of AZ and also of what I can do to improve the habitat here...

I need to cut more brush to open up the wetlands for the birds and herps. Last year we saw and heard significantly more frogs and toads.

Right now it's starting to get cold at night and all I'm seeing are the garters, browns, and redbellies. It's this time of year I really start to appreciate my collection as it keeps me occupied while I'm stuck indoors. Only a couple more months before brumation though.

Later...TC

That's as good as it gets, John!!!

Thanks Jeff.
Checking out the mandarin cages usually helps to keep my mandarin-jones at bay.
Best regards
John

That is one gorgeous mandarin!

I've been trying to put together a group of mandarins that look the way I expect them to look for a good long time. It's been a pain sometimes but they are fun to look at.
Best regards
John

Those things are goregous enough in photos; I've yet to see one in person, but I imagine that they are even more striking.
I hope to herp Taiwan one of these days. It's a relatively inexpensive flight from Japan, and I've heard that it's not a difficult place to navigate, at least once out of Taipei. If I found a Mandarin rat it would definitely come home with me. Are they a variable snake, or are most populations similar?
Great looking snake; I won't even ask what you paid for it
Shane

Shane:
Within the basic mandarin pattern there is quite a bit of variation with respect to color and proportion. Check out the photos on the links I e-mailed to you to see some of the variation. Alot of the variation is geographic (south-eastern versus south-western China, North Vietnam, India, Taiwan) but there is variability even within general areas. And of course, most people can't even get a real answer where the wild caughts they buy really come from. Alot of them show up in the food markets in Hong Kong and no locale data is maintained or even requested by animal dealers.

I've seen a couple of pictures in K.D. Schulz's Ratsnake Monograph of mandarins from Taiwan and they looked different and very nice. I hope you do see them there and while you're there see if you can find the Taiwan subspecies of Elaphe porphyracea (kawakamii). The pictures I've seen of them were really impressive. I think you'll be impressed. If you do go please take lots of pictures!

Mandarins are kind of expensive and you really have to look around to find exactly the appearance you want(if you're as nit-picky as I am!) but I really enjoy working with them. They're a bit of a challenge and don't enjoy being disturbed but they don't take up much space and I think they look great.

Best regards
John