Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

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PNWHerper
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Location: King County, WA

Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by PNWHerper »

Hey fellow field herpers,

I am in my final weeks of the Herp Tracking Book Project! Very soon I submit all my work. Now more than 3 years of work coming to a close. As part of my work, I am including shed identification as a chapter in the book. I have a method that works really well for photographing them, and hope that this will serve the field herp community in the field when it is published. If you are interested in the process, I can explain it via PM as I don't want to be really long winded here.

If you have some nice sheds you want to photograph and send pics of to me, please let me know here or via PM. I am looking for species of snakes or lizards found in the USA or Canada. Rather than make a list of several hundred species, I will share a shorter list of what I already have recorded.

Here are the species I have recorded already

Snakes

- Arizona Mountain Kingsnake
- Black-tailed Rattlesnake
- Coachwhip (though, I could use a better example)
- Common Kingsnake
- Common Gartersnake
- Glossy Snake
- Gopher Snake
- Green Rat Snake
- Long-nosed Snake
- California Lyre Snake
- Massasauga
- Mexican Gartersnake
- Milk Snake
- NW Gartersnake
- Ring-necked Snake
- Rosy Boa
- Rough Green Snake
- Rubber Boa
- Shovel-nosed Snake
- Speckled Rattlesnake
- Tiger Rattlesnake
- Vine Snake
- Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
- Northern Pacific Rattlesnake

Lizards

- Chuckwalla
- Desert Horned Lizard
- Desert Iguana
- Gila Monster
- Great Basin Collared Lizard
- Long-nosed Leopard Lizard
- Northern Alligator Lizard
- Peninsular Leaf-toed Gecko
- Southern Alligator Lizard

Here are a few examples of some of the sheds I have photographed. Hope you enjoy them. If you want, try and figure out what they are...

1)

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2)
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3)
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4)
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And this is a close up study of scales I did with some macro photography. Pretty happy with the level of detail in this one:

Image
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AndyO'Connor
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by AndyO'Connor »

I have western coachwhip, great basin gopher, cali mountain king, desert king, northwestern garter snake, and ground snake sheds at home.
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Owen
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by Owen »

I had a 50" Common Garter shed, but I accidentally sucked it into my dust collector in the shop when the hose separated from it's coupling about a month and a half ago (face palm!). I'll keep an eye out for them and not destroy them when I find them.
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PNWHerper
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by PNWHerper »

Thanks, Owen. Let me know if you find a good one soon.

Andy,

Are you interested/willing to photograph a few of those for me. Especially the coachwhip, groundsnake and CA mountain king? Let me know. If you are willing, I can explain the method I used to make the shed I posted here more photogenic.
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dery
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by dery »

pm sent.
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AndyO'Connor
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by AndyO'Connor »

Yes Fil, I can do that for you. Let me know. I've got a Canon 7D and a 100mm L and a flash, so I should be able to get close and a lot of detail, or back up a bit with a ruler for scale. The coach and z shed in full just about every time, the ground snakes might be tough as they're small, but I do have complete sheds from them.
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PNWHerper
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by PNWHerper »

Dery,

Thank you for the PM. I sent a response.

Andy,

I am sending you a detailed PM of how you can process them, if you wish. Thank you for being willing to get some shots of them for me. The smallest shed I worked with so far is shed skin from the head of a Peninsular leaf-toed gecko. That thing was tiny! It turned out pretty well though. So, with careful work, no shed is too small... though some can be too fragile or frayed as they age.
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SurfinHerp
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by SurfinHerp »

Hey Fil - I recently found a pretty good shed from a red diamond rattlesnake. I also got a shed from the ground snake Frank gave me. I may have one or two other sheds that you need as well. Please send me details of the process you use to photo sheds.

Additionally, I discovered freshly laid eggs in my shovel-nosed snake terrarium today, in case you want documentation of those.


Jeff
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PNWHerper
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by PNWHerper »

Great, Jeff!

I will send you a detailed PM immediately regarding the process. And, yes, I would love to have photos of the shovel-nosed snake eggs with a ruler in the photo for frame of reference. Thank you!
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dery
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by dery »

I have a few good sheds from my pet cornsnakes if you need them.
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PNWHerper
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by PNWHerper »

Yeah, I actually don't have anything for any ratsnakes, not even corn snakes.

So, yeah, see if you can get some good ones. :thumb:

Thank you.
simpleyork
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by simpleyork »

I think one of my night snakes should be shedding soon
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PNWHerper
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by PNWHerper »

Cool, Simpleyork. You want to give the technique a try and see if you can get some good pics?
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NewYorkHerper16
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by NewYorkHerper16 »

I have a pretty nice shed from a juvenile Eastern Milk Snake (L. triangulum triangulum) that i could send a photo of. Would you be interested to have a photo of that to see if it suits your needs?

-Alex
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PNWHerper
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Re: Calling all Sheds: Want to contribute?

Post by PNWHerper »

Sent you a PM, but did not see a response. Sending everything in Monday. Thanks for offering, anyway. ;)
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