Coast Gartersnake (Thamnophis elegans terrestris)

Created: May 19th, 2012 - 05:55 PM
Last Modified: June 22nd, 2012 - 03:51 PM Entered by: Elaine Hander
Record 110888

Country: United States		State: California	County: Santa Cruz County	Time: 2012-05-19 14:45:00
Qty: 1	Age: --	Sex: --	Method: Visual encounter	Habitat: flower bed -- redwood forest near a creek
Body Temperature: -----		Air Temperature: 82.00F	Ground Temperature: -----	Humidity: 45%
Sky Conditions: Clear		Moon Phase: -----	Elevation: 479.00ft	Barometric Pressure: 759.97 mmHg

Notes

beautiful snake......not sure if it's a San Francisco garter snake or a California Redsided garter snake.

The background color on his back and top of his head is a rich, deep brown. Side stripes solidly orange and a pale lemon yellow stripe down the center of his back starting just below his skull.

Added June 22, 2012: Thanks so much to James for helping me get the correct ID on this little guy. He's beautiful.....even if he's a tad common. B^)

Vouchers

Comments

Posted by Elaine Hander on Jun 22, 2012 at 03:58 PM

Both Brians!

Posted by Elaine Hander on Jun 22, 2012 at 03:53 PM

Thanks James and Brian.....deep in a past life, I have a Marine Biology degree, so I still have some vestiges of curiosity as to how to tell the difference in these wonderful critters I'm encountering under the redwoods.

Posted by Brian Hubbs on Jun 20, 2012 at 11:02 PM

I have seen hundreds of SF Garters, and this is not one. Please change the name to the correct species. Thanks. Brian Hubbs, Arizona Chapter Vice-President.:)

See record #80979 to see the difference.

Posted by Brian Hinds-AKA Fundad on Jun 20, 2012 at 10:58 PM

Hi Elaine, James is correct this is a Coast Garter Snake T. elegans terrestris. Please change the species. Thank you Brian Hinds California Chapter President.

Posted by James Maughn on Jun 20, 2012 at 12:00 PM

A fair question, Elaine. Truth is, my formal qualifications are nil. I'm a college English teacher and a poet. I have spent a great deal of time with our local herps, though, and feel certain about my ID here.

The main distinguishing features T. elegans terrestris and T. sirtalis tetraenia are color, scalature, and the lateral stripes. T. e. terrestris is also much, much more common. As far as I know, there's only one known sighting of a SF Garter in Santa Cruz Co. Otherwise, they only occur in San Mateo Co. The easiest way to distinguish them is that the SF Garter's head is nearly always red, and the dorsal strip is often blueish, as are the lateral stripes on the side. This site, from Gary Nafis' Californiaherps.com, is probably the most useful resource for distinguishing between Garter Snakes, which can definitely be a challenge.

http://www.californiaherps.com/identification/snakesid/gartersnakeskey.html

I'll ask a couple of folks with more expertise than I have to chime in, here, but I feel confident they'll agree this is a Coast Garter. If it turns out to be a SF Garter, you can expect to be deluged with requests for info about where you saw it. :)

All the best,
Jim

Posted by Elaine Hander on Jun 20, 2012 at 11:44 AM

Hi James,

Could you help me differentiate between the two and I'd love to know your background....are you a local herp professor or researcher?

Posted by James Maughn on Jun 18, 2012 at 01:18 PM

Hi Elaine, would you mind please changing this entry to reflect the species change? Since the SF Garter is a very endangered snake, we'd like to keep all the records of that one as accurate as possible, in case we need to release the data.

Thanks!
Jim

Posted by James Maughn on May 21, 2012 at 11:51 PM

No problem, Elaine. Happy to help. If you don't mind, please edit this post to reflect the name change. You just go up to the edit button, and then just choose Thamnophis elegans terrestris in the genus, species, and subspecies dropdowns.

Posted by Elaine Hander on May 21, 2012 at 08:02 PM

Hi guys-----I'm deleting my duplicate posting (1108887) and wanted to be sure I included Jim's original comment, so I'm pasting it here:

Posted by James Maughn on May 21, 2012 at 12:49 AM
Beautiful snake! That's a Coast Garter Snake, Thamnophis elegans terrestris. They are one of the most diverse snakes in our area, in terms of color and pattern. Some are very drab, some splendidly colorful, such as this one. Nice sighting!

Posted by Elaine Hander on May 21, 2012 at 07:52 PM

Thanks, James, for clarifying! and thanks for posting to both entries. Was encountering technical difficulties uploading to the site, so I guess it registered multiple times.

Posted by James Maughn on May 21, 2012 at 12:51 AM

Coast Gartersnake. Very nice!