Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, so just to be perfectly clear here: I'm not an agent. So there.

However, I am still jonesing for another Rubber Boa catch--that one in WA a few weekends ago was such a rush, such a "rare find" for me.

I will have my fish/game permit by next week.

I am in between Berkeley and Richmond, have a car to travel, and would love to find my own. I have looked in the various places I can think of that might be fruitful, to no avail. I'd appreciate any help or suggestions of actual places (preferably nearby, perhaps in Kensington or Tilden), with intersecting streets if in residential neighborhoods.

Hopefully, there will be some good news soon.

Thanks everyone!

Sometime in the late 1970's or perhaps early 1980's, I exchanged a number of letters with a high school student by the name of Alexander K. Johnson who live in Richmond. I believe his father was a professor at U.C. Berkeley. Alex was very interest in herps including the Rubber Boa. As I recall, he found a fair number of boas in the East Bay area in the hills east of Richmond. I recall him mentioning something about finding a number of specimens in the vicinity of San Pablo Reservoir.

During or shortly after his freshman year at Humboldt State U., I lost track of Alexander. But in surveying both the Rubber Boas and Sharp-tailed Snakes barrowed from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology collection at UC Berkeley, I found a number of specimens of those species that Alex had collected and donated to the MVZ.

I know the species occurs in the greater Tilden Regional Park area as well. Although born and raised in Oakland, I never found a boa in that region and then moved away when 15 in 1948. As a scout and visiting Tilden, the Scout master showed us a juvenile boa that had been captured in the park by someone else. That was my first exposure to the species.

This is not the best time of year to search for the species but once you get some cooler, particularly cool night time temperatures and perhaps some rain, thereafter is the second best season for finding the species.

Since most of that region is basically grassland / brush type habitat, it would seem you either need to find areas in which there is junk to turn or redistribute such artificial cover objects in out of the way places within boa habitat.

You mentioned something about getting a fish/game permit. What type of permit are you getting?

Richard F. Hoyer (Corvallis, Oregon)

Thank you, Mr. Hoyer, for your informative answer. I look forward to searching both the Richmond hills, and Tilden Park!

I have gotten--and am waiting for delivery of--a general sport-fishing license, as that is what is indicated on the Fish & Game CA website as being required for having up to 2 Rubber Boas in your possession.

I want to be legal about this. I believe I need to renew my license yearly, and I'm fine with that.

If you know something different, please don't hesitate to let me know. I really appreciate your advice and experience.

Laila

p.s. I submitted to your son (I believe), my info regarding the RB that I caught in Teheya, WA a couple of weekends ago, including some pictures. That was just so awesome for me--the catching, and the ability to help someone collect data!

Laila:
It has always been my understanding that a sports fishing license was needed to pursue and retain herps on a recreational basis. It just sounded odd when in your original post, you mentioned something about having to obtain a "fish/game permit" as if you were applying for some type of special permit when only a fishing license was needed.

I use to obtained 2-year non-resident scientific collecting permits in Calif. for my research on the species in that state. Then the level of incompetence in the permit division of CDFG rose to a higher standard and they no longer would issue a permit that was efficient and truly workable for the type of mark / recapture research I was trying to accomplish. So I have reverted to also obtaining a non-resident fishing licenses each year when I travel to Calif.

Where is Teheya, Washington?

The key to finding the species in basically grassland type habitat such as here in western Oregon, is to use artificial cover objects. Two years ago, some herpers took me to a couple of junky areas in the West Bay Area (Santa Cruz Mts.) and we came up with 16 boas in about 1 3/4 hours. We hit it just right as far as weather conditions. And we also observed gobs of garter snakes under the same 'junk', mostly roofing tins and plywood boards, along with racers, S. Alligator Lizards, etc.

I suspect that the same holds true for the East Bay region. In the 1990's, a herper took me to where he had found a large female boa in the hills behind Tilden. He had found the boa under a piece of plywood that was under the overhanging branches of a large live oak tree in otherwise open grassland and brush type habitat.

Richard F. Hoyer