Mountain garter snake

Mountain garter snake
	T. elegans terrestris
Systematics
Subordination :	Snakes (serpentes)
Superfamily :	Adder-like and viper-like (Colubroidea)
Family :	Adders (Colubridae)
Subfamily :	Water snakes (Natricinae)
Genre :	Garter Snakes ( Thamnophis )
Type :	Mountain garter snake
Scientific name
	Thamnophis elegans
	( Baird & Girard , 1853)
Subspecies
	Common mountain garter snake ; ( T. elegans elegans ; ( Baird & Girard , 1853)); Arizona garter snake ; ( T. elegans arizonae ; Tanner & Lowe , 1989); San Pedro Martir garter snake ; ( T. hamnophis elegans hueyi ; Van Denburgh & Slevin , 1923); Coastal garter snake ; ( T. elegans terrestris ; Fox , 1951); Wandering garter snake ; ( T. elegans vagrans ; ( Baird & Girard , 1853)); Upper Basin garter snake ; ( T. elegans vascotanneri ; Tanner & Lowe , 1989);

The mountain garter snake ( Thamnophis elegans ) is a species of snake of the genus Garter Snake ( Thamnophis ).

features

Females are usually up to 110 cm long, males rarely longer than 60 cm.

They have a wide range of food for garter snakes and eat amphibians , worms , fish , small mammals and other reptiles .

These snakes are viviparous . A litter usually contains five to 20 young animals.

Questionable subspecies

Currently the species is divided into six subspecies. As with other species of garter snakes, the assignment of the subspecies is also controversial with Thamnophis elegans . The Upper Basin garter snake ( T. elegans vascotanneri ) may be equated with the migratory garter snake ( T. elegans vagrans ). The subspecies status of the coastal garter snake ( T. elegans terrestris ) and the Arizona garter snake ( T. elegans arizonae ) has also been questioned.

distribution

The habitat of the mountain garter snakes stretches from British Columbia and Alberta in western Canada through the states of Washington and Montana in the northwest of the USA to the south of California and Arizona . They can also be found in the state of Baja California in Mexico .

literature

Thomas Bourguignon: Garter Snakes. Origin, care, species . DATZ terrarium books, 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3591-4 .
Martin Hallmen, Jürgen Chlebowy: Garter Snakes . Natur und Tier - Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-931587-49-5 .
WP Mara: garter snakes in the terrarium . Bede Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-927997-79-X . (Paperback, 63 pages)
Frank Mutschmann : The garter snakes. Biology, dissemination, attitude . Westarp-Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-89432-427-9 . (Paperback, 172 pages)

Web links

Commons : Mountain Garter Snake ( Thamnophis elegans ) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Information on the mountain garter snake (English)
Thamnophis elegans in The Reptile Database
Thamnophis elegans inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Frost, DR, Hammerson, GA & Hollingsworth, B., 2007. Retrieved September 21, 2013.