Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I snapped a few pics last night and thought I'd share.

This is a river road animal my wife and I found back in '95 or '96... can't remember which right now. We had been driving for a few hours when it occurred to me that I had a male river at home that needed a mate. He had been collected 5.4 miles west of the top of the big hill. We marked off the mileage at the top of the hill and drove west. As we were nearing the spot I started counting off the mileage out loud "5.2 ......... 5.3 ...........and just as we rolled up on "5.4" we found this big girl laying in the middle of the road. It was my wife's first trip to Texas and also her first alterna. It was her second night of hunting LOL. It took me a total of 38 nights to find my first one. I guess we know who's better at alterna hunting LOL. I would have been content to take photos of this snake and let it go on its way, but there was some sentimental value attached.

This is a CB female from 9 miles north of Sanderson. Bob Haase sent her to me. Bob, if you read this, can you fill me in on her backgound again?

This was the first light phase male I collected east of Sanderson. He shed the other night so I took the oppportunity to photo him. I caught him as a young adult a little over 12 years ago. He's still looking good for how old he is.

Thanks a lot for posting the beautiful pics these past few days....one comment, not really related to the images themselves, but the comments about how "old" the animals are....I maintain they are middle-aged instead of old! I have had alternas live over 20 years. Right now I have a 47 inch male that was 31 inches when I caught him in 1987....I was certain he was going to expire this past summer as he refused to eat and had lost a lot of weight....my son, who works for a vet, took him in....they treated him with oral antibiotics, force fed him "carnivore"diet....long story short, he gained 100 grams, feeds on his own again and still looks pretty good..he has got to be approaching 25 years of age.......any of you other alterna keepers have long-term captives? just wonderin'.....

I have a Langtry male that was collected as a 20" youngster in 1988. He's done very well his whole life, but he appears as though he starting to wind down his journey. He was my first gray-band and he's been a great captive. This past spring he started to take on a triangular body shape even though he continued feeding well. He developed cataracts and it looks as though he's developed a small abcess about 5" above his vent in the last few weeks. I don't know that I expect him to make it through winter. It may sound corny, but I'll miss having him around. He was the sire to my first clutch of alterna and produced my first black-headed west Langtrys. I bought him from Louie Porras when I was a freshman in high school LOL.

My comment about my east Sanderson critter being old comes more from everyone else's reaction to his age in captivity than anything else. Everyone seems surprised I still have snakes I caught that long ago. I still have the majority of my WC Sanderson animals and although there are a few that are starting to look a little frayed around the edges, most of them (including the light blairs in the last post), continue to look very healthy.

Hi Gerry. How's that Hueco doin? Great year for you. Congrats.
As far as age of captives go I currently have a wild caught that is doing great that I found on the Pandale dirt in May of 1986. It was around 14-16 inches at the time I found him. I'd say he is 38-41 inches now. Thats the longest I've kept one alive so far. I have had 6 others go between 15-18 yrs before they succumbed and they were all adults when I caught them [26in. ]. Still have 3 captive borns from my first clutch in 88 so maybe they'll get past the 20 yr. threshold as well. What I consider even more unusual is I still have my first Bairds[1983]. first lep[1984] and first suboc [1981]. All of those animals were from Juno Road. The Bairds and suboc were adults [over 3 ft. long] when I caught them so you have to figure they were at the very least 3 years old or more when I found them.
Also have a Western Cottonmouth I bought from Joe Tesca for 10.00 in 1978. He's too mean to die!! Also still have the first celanops I ever caught [River road] in 1988. Maybe thats why I can't find anything anymore, the "snake God's" have given me longevity over oppurtunistic hunting! BA