Corn Snake Genetics

This corn snake belongs to a friend of the family:
As you can see, this corn snake is quite a bit different than any of mine. It has a broken up stripe that connects the pattern in the middle and towards the tail:

The variations in corn snake genetics are incredible. This snake is also high white and is very tame, like a typical corn.

To see an awesome variety and latest corn snake morphs, check out http://www.moreptiles.com/

Ruby is an entirely different flavor:

Lizard ID Challenge

Test your lizard id skills. What species is this and where does it range?

Whip snake, whiptails, scorpions, and others

****DOUBLE CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE****
After finding a huge golden eagle and a lot of other cool desert wildlife, we arrived at a spot that looked good for finding snakes. This little whiptail was the first herp that I could get a picture of:
In less than 5 minutes we had found several scorpions. They are all curled up when you first flip the rock they are under:

They quickly spring into defensive posture:

They will nearly flip over thrusting their stinger toward you:

A true desert survivor could remove the stinger and pop the scorpion into their mouth for a snack. I prefer to just hold out until I can get to an Arby's.

These little guys seemed to have very good sight for having tiny eyes.

This was the largest of the scorpions and it had black claws:

It was not to be messed with. I put all of the scorpion homes/rocks back exactly as I found them.

We spotted a lot of side blotched lizards basking on rocks:

Another side blotched lizard:

This area had a concentrated population of whiptail lizards.

Most of these whiptails had some blue above their front legs.

The full-grown whiptails were 15 to 20 inches long from their snout to the end of their tails.

While being pursued they would often stop to lay for a moment on warm rocks and then take off again.

When they bask, whiptails usually lift their legs:

Photographing whiptails usually involves some running and chasing.

There were a lot of holes in the area, but the whiptails were reluctant to go down them when they were being pursued. This gave me hopes of finding snakes.

Another whiptail that is probably wondering why I am chasing it with a camera:

The pronghorn antelope: the fastest land animal in the western hemisphere.

Finally, a snake:

When we walked up to this rock slide, this striped whip snake came quickly slithering out.

Every whip snake I have ever picked up has rolled in my hands. Those that have handled whip snakes know what I mean by that.

Whip snakes are good-looking creatures:

Off goes the whip snake:

To terrorize the lizards.

This yellow side-blotched lizard was regrowing it's tail, possibly lost to the whip snake as it was found in the exact same area.

This fence lizard couldn't find a fence to hang out on:

These lizards are about the easiest lizards to catch. The are quick, but they let you get really close before they decide to flee.

Same lizard, different angle:

Blue and orange:

The orange is mostly in the arm pits:

A closer shot of the arm pit:

Unlike most, this lizard would not go to sleep when we turned it over and rubbed it's belly:

Another side-blotched:

Another big fence lizard:

The camouflage wasn't working with this guy:

After looking for cool rocks and finding more than we could take home, we photoed more of the whiptails while looking for snakes.

There were so many whiptails here that I had to stop several times to avoid running them over. The whiptails were also chasing each other around in circles, which made us laugh.

The smaller lizards lived right amongst the whiptails.

Whiptail lizards never bite when caught. Their defense is their speed.

As cool as whiptails are, they should not be kept as pets. There are just too many captive bred lizards that can be purchased cheaply and are easier to keep.

The kids like holding whiptails when we find them:

I have never seen a whiptail's tail detach like other lizards. Maybe they don't.

I think I took too many whiptail pictures. I guess that is what happens when only one snake is found.

Spiders and Creepy Crawlies.

Sometimes it is fun to turn attention to things that have a few more legs than snakes. Take a look at this caterpillar. This pattern would look awesome on a snake:
When this caterpillar was not crawling, it was hard to tell which end was which because of the eyes on the rear:

This was a ladybug hotel:

This is one of the easiest spiders to identify. Black widows were very common in the area we were flipping. Whenever I reached under a rock and felt a really strong web, I stopped and found another handle.

Another black widow:

And another:

This was a surprise:

This wolf spider was even bigger than the one from the previous spider post and had a huge egg sack.

The spider allowed me to move it to a better place for photos.

This shot is from almost directly behind the spider. They really do have eyes in the back of their heads:

Spider and caterpillar:

This spider was nearly 4 inches in length.

This thing had eyes all over. Even its abdomen had a pair:

Nightsnake neighborhood

I snapped a sequence of photos that showed this spider attack. These funnel-shaped webs were everywhere in the area and there were also countless grasshoppers flying in every direction. This grasshopper landed in the funnel-shaped web and as it struggled, the spider came running out and captured it.
The funnel web is a grasshopper's worst nightmare:
This shot shows the spider lifting it's fangs in preparation for the kill:

Death crawls closer:

After observing the funnel-web assault, I began flipping rocks on the same hill and found 2 night snakes. I took quite a few photos of those.

This night snake actually flattened it's head and made a small hiss when I lifted its rock. This is something I didn't think I would ever see a little night snake do. It is shown here still puffed:

These are Utah's state flower: the sego lily. They hint at how small the night snakes were:

A larger shot of the same type of flower:

A nocturnal snake that had to endure the sun and a few photos:

My son wanted to keep this one:

I have to admit that night snakes are pretty cool, especially their eyes, but the answer was no.
We found a basking fence lizard:

I didn't attempt to catch this one.

We saw sage lizards by the millions and I took pictures of some:

As common and colorless as sage lizards are, they are quite cool in my opinion:

Lizards always keep an eye on intruders:

I wonder how agile these guys would be without the claw footwear.

Sage and side-blotched lizards were found on the same logs. They apparently get along fine.

This side-blotched lizard was extremely good-looking with a blue leopard pattern:

We found quite a few of these mormon crickets while flipping:

The females have pointy things on their rear ends for laying eggs:

The males lack those:

Another female:

I had to photo this bumble bee on a thistle:

We found some skinks:

Skinks are just shiny, fast lizards.
These are the lampropeltis (shiny scaled) of the lizard kingdom:
This one was a biter, but I couldn't get a focused picture of that.

We found this one with a blue tail. The blue tail indicates a juvenile, even though this one was about the same size. The predator is supposed to go for the colorful tail, which easily breaks off and allows the skink to escape. We managed to let him keep his tail.

Stay still!

I managed to get one clean shot of this lightning bolt without holding it:

My son carried this gopher snake with him for over 3 hours while we herped:

I think if my son had more hands, he would carry more reptiles:

This was a cool thing to see:

A wild gopher snake feeding on a mouse. Who needs the discovery channel?

The eyes began to bug from pressure:

I am glad my Mexican black king snake doesn't require live food any more.

After his meal, the gopher snake was in a really bad mood and didn't want to be handled:

He did some hissing and striking and we let him be on his way.

This was a garter found the evening before this outing:

And another garter found near home the same day:

Snake Photography

We found this really nice gopher snake and I took a bunch of pictures of it. The snake was found while flipping and hissed and struck at anything that came near it. It bit my pantleg and then a few moments later was calm enough for kids to hold. It actually seemed to like being held after all the fuss:
The color pattern near the tail on gopher snakes is the coolest:

Utah wouldn't be as cool without Great Basin gopher snakes.

Swerve or stop when you see one of these on the road:

This snake was about 3.5 feet long. It can grow to over 6 feet.

I think it was trying to spell something:

Keep an eye on the head:

All of the pictures in this post are of the same gopher snake

This is the snake when it was all riled up:

Male and female mormon crickets:Female:

The beauty created by storms:

Rain coming to the desert:

The mountains are our compass:

A young mormon racer found the same day:

Racers don't race when they are cold.

This snake was only about 13 inches long.

This photo gives more size details:

One with the tongue out:

Killdeer Rescue. Sorry, no snakes in this post.

After a hail storm the other day, we witnessed a hopeless situation as 2 killdeer parents had attempted to move their chicks. For those that don't know, killdeers are really pretty birds that are closely related to plovers. They fly very well, but nest on the ground, relying heavily on camouflage. Killdeer eggs are even colored to match the rocks where they're laid. Anyway, the chicks were stuck on the road because of the high curbs on each side. It wouldn't be long before the chicks were either hit by a car or eaten by a cat or dog. They needed help. My wife looked at me and pleaded with me not to get involved because we were in a hurry as usual. She knows me better than that. I first helped the larger chick over the curb and it ran quickly to some tall grass. The smaller chick was wet and seemed very weak. While I began to help the

smaller chick over the curb, both of the killdeer parents would come close to me and fake an injury by flopping all over the ground as if their wings were broken. This is just their instinctive behavior to draw predators away and is entertaining to witness. The smaller chick didn't run to the tall grass and was almost too weak to stand. In the confusion, one of the parents flew to the smaller chick and started pecking at it. I intervened and walked up to the chick and picked it up. As I walked back, I could tell my wife was completely thrilled that we were now going to adopt another animal. I quickly did some research on raising killdeer chicks and found out that it is impossible to do. Besides being against the law, even killdeer experts cannot raise killdeer chicks. This is because killdeer parents never feed their chicks. From the moment they hatch, killdeer chicks have to find their own food. They must learn how to find food by watching and learning from their parents. After learning this, I dried off the smaller chick and quickly ran it back to the area thinking that I might have sealed this poor chick's fate. I was relieved to hear the chick calling loudly back to the parents and they flew up to me and faked injuries again. I set the chick at the edge of the tall grass where the larger chick had gone and then I withdrew. One of the killdeer parents then flew up to the chick and I feared that the parent would again peck the chick, but the parent led the chick into the tall grass to safety. That was really good to see. It was a good feeling to think we helped this bird family.

Snakes, lizards, and grasshoppers

On this warm morning I decided to head to a spot where gopher snakes and rattle snakes are sometimes found by the dozens. We started finding gopher snakes before we even got half way there. I'm not sure how many gopher snakes we found, but this was the first live gopher snake. It was calmer than most pet snakes and was a little over 4 feet long:
Another shot of the first snake since I had my camera out:
Snakes are so much easier to find when they are stretched out across the road:
Going:
Going:
Gone:
This was the only snake found in the shade this morning:
Me in my preferred habitat and the snake from the shade:
This shot shows rattlesnake vs. road machinery. I actually waved to the guy that was operating the road grader as I drove past, but I wasn't thinking kind thoughts. He had gone out of his way and off the road to accomplish this:These are large grasshoppers that my kids asked me to catch. Try getting 2 grasshoppers to stay still for a photo.

This dark-colored fence lizard was found. This is about as big as a western fence lizard gets:

More shots of the same lizard as I chased it around the rock formations. The .22 shell in the background gives some perspective as to the size of this guy. Because of its size and color, I think it is the same lizard that I have caught here the last several years.

Pretty lichens and cool reptile:

I had to get a belly shot after putting the old lizard down for a nap:

This smaller adult gopher snake was found on the way back. We were late getting back, but I had to stop and get the snake out of the road and into another basking spot.

Snakes: Handling Racers

In an area near an abandoned town off HWY 89, there is a lot of short grass and some debris on a SW facing hillside. This is known good habitat for many different snakes, but so far this year only racers have been found there. Whenever you come upon a basking racer, they don't waste any time fleeing; hence the term racer. To get photos of a warm racer, you must be quick to grab the tail:
Be ready for the immediate backlash:
A racer bite isn't any worse than getting snagged on a thorn bush.After grabbing and releasing the tail several times, the racer will then stand its ground. This is when you can take pictures if you care to.

Considered to be trash snakes by some herpers, I find racers to be really good looking snakes and definitely better than finding nothing when I am looking during the day.

Snakes and lizards in Kaibab

I had the opportunity to visit Kaibab National Forest for 2 days. Short-horned lizards were active and somewhat easy to find while hiking. There were tiny ones:

Small ones:

Medium sized:

Medium skinny:

And larger, handsome ones:



There were common tree lizards:
While photographing this common tree lizard, I accidentally chased it into another tree lizard's territory and they got into a fight right in front of me.

In a different area there were striped plateau lizards:

This was a pretty big one:

There were sage lizards:

There was spectacular terrain and scenery. A whiptail was seen, but it dashed into the briars before a good photo could be taken.

Kaibab is known habitat for the rarely seen Arizona mountain king snake, so that was the goal.

But no mountain kings were found on this trip, even with considerable effort. This wandering garter snake was found. It had just eaten what looked like a large short-horned lizard.

This is the garter, exactly as it was found:

When I moved the garter to the grass for a different shot, it did the usual defecating/musking.

Snakes in Dry Canyon

It rained most of the day but the sun came out in the afternoon and heated up the rocks. I was hoping to find a rubber boa, but found Mormon racers instead.

This racer was not happy about being disturbed. It flattened its head:

This is racer language for "free body piercing"This racer blew itself up like a balloon to try to look bigger:

Calm down girl!

This racer struck at me repeatedly, but I couldn't time the picture to catch its mouth open.

This canyon is pretty and easily accessible.

Snakes-Garters

Garter snakes are usually the first and last snakes found in the valley. This is because they live right in most neighborhoods and finding them doesn't require planning an outing. They seem to get along just fine if they can avoid cats and lawnmowers and snake-hating, shovel-carrying people.

The amazing thing about garters is that they seem to just pop out of the ground in the spring in places where there aren't any obvious hiding places. A lot of these snakes are more than two feet long, yet they can simply disappear. Being serpentine has advantages.

For those that don't know, garters almost never bite but will musk or defecate when caught. Sometimes they will whip their tails around while defecating and leave you covered.

I love it when I catch them with their tongues out:

Some snake keepers feed garter snakes to their king snakes or milk snakes. I consider that to be very cruel, but then I am sure there are mouse lovers that frown on feeding rodents to snakes.

Garter snakes and most other snakes are underdogs in environmental struggles, but they can survive in neighborhoods that have yards with some vegetation and that is good to see.

Snakes-Milk and King Feeding Time

Like most snake keepers, I feed my snakes separately and in different containers than their normal terrariums (Note: empty costco nut and animal cracker containers make perfect feed containers for young snakes). Feeding snakes outside their home generally keeps king snakes and milk snakes from considering each other as a meal or confusing a hand for food.

King Snake Surrenders

After Ramses came out of his first hibernation, I used his hunger to switch him to frozen/thawed mice instead of live mice. This is more humane for the mice, helps Ramses avoid the "farewell bite", and makes my life a little easier. Ramses is no dummy. I have tried all of the tricks numerous times to get him to eat pre-killed food, but he would simply not eat something that he hadn't killed himself. He would move the dead mice around to determine whether they were alive or not and when the mice did not move, Ramses would not eat them no matter what they smelled like. His habits are so well-defined that I can predict his every move and I am counting on him eating frozen/thawed from now on.