Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

Here are a couple photos of a garter snake I caught this Spring at Valley Forge in PA. I hadn't seen one with quite this pattern before - it had an orange/brown cast to it and looked more spotted than usual (if that makes any sense).

What I see the most of in SE PA are garters with very bright blue-greenish skin between their scales (there's a word for that skin that I can't think of right now). The garter in these pics is NOT one of them, but I was wondering if the bright inter-scale skin is something people see elsewhere. I've caught garters in Ohio, Georgia, Maryland, and elsewhere, but for some reason these garters seem to have brighter, unusually blue-green inter-scale skin. I'll try to get a good picture.

Thanks,
Billy

Phillyherping

The garters I catch in NJ usually have bluish interstitial skin (I think that's the word you were looking for). It amazes me how variable these guys can be within a subspecies!

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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

Interstitial!

Thank you.

Yeah, the best I can describe the color is like toothpaste, but a little brighter. I can't get it to come out in photos well, though.

I'll post later a photo of a garter I caught on the same hillside, but with a totally different pattern.

Cheers,
Billy

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Phillyherping

Here's another eastern garter caught maybe thirty yards away from the first garter, on the same day at Valley Forge. It does demonstrate the variability in a single population.

Cheers,
Billy

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Phillyherping

im from phila. pa. my daughter (6yrs.old) was just given one by a boy that he caught in his back yard, it looks exactly like the one u pic. its about 10 inches long. i really dont know how to take care of it i feed it worms and i have a bowl of water and a piece of clothe inside the tank and a desk lamp over the tank. any suggestions on how to take care of it?!