Field Herp Forum

Folks I'm compiling historical records of the California Tiger Salamanders in the South San Francisco Bay Area, and am looking for any non-vouchered records. I have some 1960s-1970s information, mostly showing sites within current subdivisions that once had tiger sal populations. I know of a few ext...

Kurt I remember the Xeno as well [Quah, E.S.H., Grismer, L.L., Jetten, T., Wood, P.L., Miralles, A., Shahrul Anuar M.S., Guek, K.H.P. & Brady, M.T. (2018b) The rediscovery of Schaefer’s Spine-jawed Snake (Xenophidion schaeferi Günther & Manthey, 1995) (Serpentes, Xenophidiidae) from Peninsular Malay...

Wow Kurt, are you an Anomochilus magnet or have you figured out their niche?
Very impressive...
Jeff

Wow! Nice photography of the usual plus rare critters of southern Arizona. Having lived there and seen these I can appreciate the great photography, and the work that is necessary to find some of these reclusive animals. The gila monsters bursting forth is wonderful, along with so many others. My la...

Merry Christmas, as well, to all.
This year the temerarious peregrinations of the coronavirus left me with few alternatives: according to my employer I could either work from home or do field work! Oh heavens...!

Jeff

Hans
I'm not even fluent in pig latin, but a long interest in etymology has deposited much nomenclatural strata in the brain pan.
If I don't know the etymology I start with the original description for clues.
Jeff

Hans The etymology of old generic names can be tough to determine without a fluency in ancient Greek or Latin, that is, those that were created prior to the relatively recent requirement to provide an etymology in the manuscript. Hypsiscopus comes from the Greek Hypsi (high or lofty) and scopus (vie...

from visits to east TX I got the impression they were doing just fine in areas completely dominated by GC toads Yes, that is very strange. Two years ago, a friend of mine in Louisiana who was hoping to one day see a hognose went to Houston and found five in one morning. In the 1930s George Meade ra...

Yesterday I found a near-neonate, perhaps a couple of months old based on size, that already had a dull green tail. On the other hand, I have seen juveniles of about the same size in late spring with yellow tails (they being born late-summer/early-fall) in Louisiana. Yesterday I also saw a neonate c...

They are pretty common throughout the state. They lay large clutches of eggs so it's not unusual to see a dozen or more young ones in the fall. I've been given a couple of big clutches in the past (1990s), so there is a high reproductive potential. One came from a sawdust pile. All of the recent so...

How are hognoses doing in Wisconsin? They are about gone from southern Louisiana - just a few small pockets. I get one or two reports per year, but up through the mid 1970s they were common yard snakes. The small juveniles here have an orange middorsal stripe and are Pygmy Rattler mimics, Thanks for...

A coworker sent me a photo of an adult cottonmouth eating a juvenile cottonmouth here in Louisiana. Cottonmouths are gluttons for a wide range of prey (fish, frogs, other snakes, small mammals, pig fat, regurgitated sea food, turtles, etc.). They may be an exception within viperids.
Jeff

Hans What an eloquent story. Your subtle and entertaining use of humor as an undertone throughout made for non-stop reading. The story probably could not have been better told. In contrast, one of my recent books (2014 - Snakes of the World...Wallach, Williams and Boundy) rated this review on Amazon...

The Zim and Smith Golden Guide was the trigger for me as well. I got a copy for my birthday in 1964 and expected to find Dicamptodon basking beside waterfalls as portrayed therein (didn't work, by the way). The glue binding was awful and I went through several copies at $1 each. Several years ago I ...

Middle Ajo Road - Kitt Peak Turnoff to a little west of Sells, they are routine, in case you don't want to risk 85. My observations are 40 years old though. As Steve said, rain is a must, and just keep the windows down and listen for mixed choruses.

Jeff

Dunn's, Plethodon dunni, though they are usually close to moving water.

Jeff

Here is a very large Sierra Garter from the Kern Plateau, from the 1991, about 45" live measurement.

It's a Texas Brown Snake, Storeria dekayi texana. I've seen a few with the red ground color, though they are usually tan or beige.

Jeff

Jeroen

They appear to be standard, farm-raised Pseudemys concinna. They are exported from the USA by tens of thousands each year. As are some Graptemys...

Jeff

After lunch, we made out way back into the woods, Young love This was a wonderful post for me, as I'm from the Santa Clara Valley, and made many of those same trips up the coast and down to Monterey. For twenty minutes I thought I was back in California. My office window is behind me, so I got to e...

Kurt

With Anomochilus and Xenophidion under your belt, there are few remaining conquests.

Your post is a great resumé for "Expert Field Man" - others need not apply.

Jeff

locality corns you say? http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... =2&t=25426

Kelly - note reference to Okeetee

Are they sympatric with milks in places in LA?

No known sympatry - scarlet kings like the ridgetops and milks are in the floodplain. They probably come within a mile of each other, but neither seem to be in the forested ravines.

Jeff

When I say end of year, I mean December 24th. R-Man, Mike and I visited one of the usual spots north of Baton Rouge. First snake was a Black (Speckled) King Next was a corn Another corn A baby king A different king A copperhead A couple more kings And a final corn. Note that Feliciana corns are not ...

Kyle Thanks for applying the defibrillator to FHF - stimulated me anyway. Do those snakes require therapy after enduring one of your and Armin's combined, glam studio sessions? If you get the urge for another post, I would like to see a longitudinal series of holbrooki/splendida shots from Houston t...

Do you know the elevation at which Mr. Hutchins found that boa? 2300-2400 feet And when are you going to retire and return to Calif. to finish the job of conducting surveys for this and that species of herp? ASAP, but don't want to dismiss the God-given gift of being a state herpetologist in a dive...

The vouchered specimen in the CAS was picked up by a friend of mine, Bill Hutchins, on a road on a steep, east-facing slope that was heavily wooded. The ranger at one of the nearby state parks (HWC) found a rubber boa in the head of a steep ravine back in the late 70s, a little below the ponderosa p...

October 1st, hatchling in Cochise County.

Rana sphenocephala have a white spot on the tympanum

I sent your dull 2-liner photo to Dave Sever, who discovered and named Eurycea junaluska, and he had this to say:

"If it is from a base-level stream (Abrams Crk, Fighting Crk, etc.) within the GSNP or neighboring drainages (Tellico, Cheoah), then it is very likely junaluska"

Jeff

Sagebrush Lizard - Sceloporus graciosus

A non-resident Basic Fishing License is $60. That will allow you to annoy, photograph, take, and possess most species in any numbers. Our Endangered (no touch) list follows the Federal Endangered list. The Forest Service requires their own permits if you are doing research (short version of what Jim...

New paperbacks are $42 from the publisher, but you can find them online for a little less (mine was $39). I don't know the hardback price, as Oxford Press offers it in paperback. Coming from Oxford, there were probably many printed, and Oxford has regular discount catalogs. Buying expensive hardback...

Chalcorana raniceps

https://amphibiaweb.org/cgi/amphib_quer ... s=raniceps

Jeff

Is there a mechanism to propose changing the forms to better reflect the animals' source and therefore greatly improve management of the species (and others)? Seems like the farmers would be all about calling their respective Congressmen to help make it happen. Louisiana turtle farmers have been wo...

The reported numbers of wild-caught turtles that leave the United States are false due to reporting requirements on export forms. All farm-raised hatchling turtles that leave Louisiana, typically around a million per year, are required to be reported as "W" for wild-caught. The Federal export form (...

Regarding Zach's question: Wildlife enforcement tends to operate on directives from above about what agents should be looking for during a particular day, week, or season. When this new regulation takes effect, enforcement agents may be in warning mode (informing people that they encounter about the...

It's over

https://thenevadaindependent.com/articl ... collection

Jeff

Kelly, Chris, Richard and Save Nevada: I am also curious about who is/are Save Nevada, but the link that was provided regarding the history of Nevada commercial take was neutral and informative. From the linked data it is apparent that a half dozen species are targeted for commercial take. From the ...

Lou

Was that really in Santa Cruz County, or maybe San Mateo. There is one valid record from Santa Cruz County, and finding another would be very important toward understanding the distribution of SF Garters vs California Red-sided.

Jeff

Bethany Good see an old young face back on the Forum. This is a great tour of a place that I've never been, and I am always interested in posts from the non-usual places. It is intriguing to see animals at the margins of their geographic/climatic tolerance. What does a hog-nosed snake do during a su...

What part of Louisiana are you from. My family is from South Plaquemines, but I grew up in Chalmette

I've lived in Baton Rouge for 25 years, but came here from California and other parts west, including western Washington (not Seattle).

Jeff

Exhibit A: One of the sad sounds of the Louisiana swamp is the scream of small Rana clamitans being swallowed feet-first by Western Ribbon Snakes.

Evidently it is not restricted to the South.

Jeff

The patchnose is a Big Bend. Mountains have a single, wide black stripe on each side:

Nice job Kris. The photographic backdrops in some are great - so difficult to achieve in the shadowy east.

If the incerts reflect the new potential for Scott's photo hosting, then let me be the first to congratulate Scott on making this option available.

Jeff

Ah, much better.

I anxiously await your posts on A. talpoideum, A. texanum and A. maculatum.

Jeff

This is great for those of us in the land of 4 Ambystomas, but photos 3 and 4 have disappeared.

Jeff

Old male Red-eared Slider.

Jeff

Yours was a very nice travelogue to a place that most of us will never see. Combining scenic photographs with the animals allows viewers to see, in a two-dimensional sense, what was certainly a very memorable trip. Pelias basking on a rock in a stream! The offhand remark that you left the family in ...

Holbrook's original description of Crotalus oreganus was spelled thus in the first edition of his "North American Herpetology", 4th part of 1840. In his second edition (1842), he spelled the name Crotalus oregonus. In both editions he stated "...the celebrated naturalist Mr. Nuttall, who procured it...