Question for anyone who has been around Garter Snakes a lot:
I grew up and lived in the Upstate South Carolina area until a few years ago.
I have been fascinated with snakes of all kind since I was old enough to
remember anything about my childhood. I used to catch Garter snakes up
there all the time and all the ones I used to catch looked like the ones in
the second photo from the top. The dark greenish tint with "yellowish / light
green" stripes.
12 years ago I moved to the midlands SC (Columbia) area and even though
I don't go out on literal herping trips, there's a couple of areas down here
where I walk around or drive around during the spring and summer and find
all kinds of snakes. This past summer I was driving around one of those
roads later in the morning and ran up on a snake that was lying about half
way in the road and into the grass along the side of the road. I stopped and
got out to see what kind it was. Looked like a Garter snake but it was extremely
dark / almost black, with vivid white stripes. Never saw one that dark or that
white with the stripes. .... About my question though
Has anyone ever experienced a Garter snake that lay on the ground totally
stiff ? ..... I went over to this snake and it didn't move and bent down to
see if it was dead. I moved it with my finger and the entire body moved like
rigor mortis had set in. My first thought was that it had been run over and
crawled to this point and died, until I noticed the tongue flicker !?! At that
point I decided to pick it up and check it for life .... As soon as I touched this
thing with a motion to grasp it, it immediately became lost the rigidity and
lifelessness and made a U Turn towards the grass and was GONE !
Just wanted to know if anyone had witnessed that kind of behavior in Garters
or any other kind of snake before ?
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