Toronto, Ontario

[Petruga]

Hey i know i never posted here in a while, i was busy, and well yesterday went for a walk and found this guy.

Hope you enjoy

 

[queztacoatl]

Nice picture, what type of snake is that? It looks like a garter snake kind of, and like a rat snake kind of. It's still a nice picture, I like it's eyes.

 

[vetusvates]

Nerodia? Water snake? Which are, of course, related to garters and ribbons.
Hmmm.....black tummy.......

What is it Petruga?

 

[Petruga]

I want to hear some more replies to see if anyone can guess it

 

[gelshark]

melanistic eastern garter?

 

[Petruga]

gelshark is right, it is an melanistic eastern garter. we have them all around here were i live

 

[vetusvates]

I was going guess Thamnophis butleri, but the non-fused (non-continuous) upper labials 5,6,7 had me thrown.

 

[ComoxCorn]

I only ever saw one melanistic garter in the wild. I grew up in Oakville, and caught one when I was a kid. Very cool.

 

[alan]

That's a neat garter. I've never seen one in real life.
We have T. sirtalis all over the place, but they're all stripey green and brown.

 

[gelshark]

since i have never been to toronto, i had to find the answer by researching
i read that something like 30% of the eastern garters in that region are melanistic
so i took a guess

 

[Petruga]

well good guess and i think its less than 30% becasue there are only 2 places in canada and there only on these small little penensulas(sorry cant spell) that we found them in.

 

[gabegt]

This is actually a Water Snake. Pretty curious creatures. Have been known to catch up with swimmers and give them a nibble

 

[Petruga]

the one in the pic is not a water snake, sorry but your wrong, its a Melanistic Garter Snake

 

[The_Thunderer]

Nice find!

 

[Petruga]

Thank you

 

[diamondlil]

Great find, what a beautiful garter snake!