Red-sided garter snake
| Red-sided garter snake | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Red-sided garter snake |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis | ||||||||||||
| ( Say , 1823) |
The red-sided garter snake ( Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis ) is one of the 12 subspecies of Thamnophis sirtalis .
features
It is characterized by a light, cream-colored back and side stripes and between one or two rows of red and black spots. The red pigments appear especially on the skin between the scales, so that well-fed or freshly fed animals appear more clearly colored than normal. The red components can vary greatly from brick to dark red as well as in their spread. Particularly dark animals with only a small amount of red come mostly from the American north ( Canada ), light animals with more red than black come from the south ( Kansas ). For some years now, different color mutations such as amelanistic , anerythristic and red side garter snakes without red spots have been bred from this subspecies . Although the first amelanistic animal was found back in 1992, it took until the beginning of the 21st century to establish this breeding form. The first European amelanist offspring were born in 2007.
Females grow up to four feet long. Males rarely reach a length of more than 80 cm.
They have a wide range of foods and eat fish , nudibranchs , worms , amphibians , mice and small birds .
Unlike most snakes , garter snakes are viviparous ( ovoviviparous ). A litter usually consists of five to 20 young animals, only occasionally more than 50.
distribution
The distribution area of the red-sided garter snake extends in the USA from the east coast of British Columbia to Oklahoma . An isolated population can be found in the border area of the two Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan , and another in northern Mexico .
literature
- DRACO, Issue 25: Garter Snakes, Natur und Tier-Verlag, 2006
- 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 3-931-58749-5
- Frank Mutschmann : The garter snakes. Biology, distribution, keeping , paperback (172 pages), Westarp-Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-894-32427-9