Amateur question

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JxT
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Joined: August 23rd, 2011, 2:46 pm

Amateur question

Post by JxT »

I know this is amateur. Is there any visual technique to help differ between Crotalus oreganus helleri and Crotalus oreganus oreganus? I just recently moved and where I'm located I can't seem to pin point whose range I fall into or if I fall in the inter graded area. All research I've tried doing doesn't seem to come up with a clear answer. So for the upcoming months if I run into an oreganus in my new neck of the woods, I would like to be able to know whether it's oreganus oreganus or oreganus helleri. Thanks for any help!
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Fundad
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Re: Amateur question

Post by Fundad »

sub species can only be identified by location..

Fundad
reako45
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Re: Amateur question

Post by reako45 »

I'm glad Fundad said that. That's what I was thinking, but I didn't want to give wrong info. Comin' from him it's pretty much gospel. Check range maps for both Crotes. I haven't looked @ range maps for either in a while so now, I'm wondering if there's an area where their respective ranges overlap.

reako45
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Mike Waters
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Re: Amateur question

Post by Mike Waters »

South of the 138 is helleri north of the 58 is oreganus.
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JxT
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Re: Amateur question

Post by JxT »

I appreciate this. Thanks for the knowledge haha. I think I might fall in the overlap area.
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JxT
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Re: Amateur question

Post by JxT »

Yeah I've looked at a couple different range maps. It just seems a bit hard to pin point where locations are on them. From what I can tell there's an overlap. But I'm no expert so I can definitely be wrong.
reako45 wrote:I'm glad Fundad said that. That's what I was thinking, but I didn't want to give wrong info. Comin' from him it's pretty much gospel. Check range maps for both Crotes. I haven't looked @ range maps for either in a while so now, I'm wondering if there's an area where their respective ranges overlap.

reako45
Robert Hansen
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Joined: June 7th, 2010, 11:35 pm

Re: Amateur question

Post by Robert Hansen »

JxT wrote:I appreciate this. Thanks for the knowledge haha. I think I might fall in the overlap area.
Where are you located? Snakes that are morphologically helleri extend as far north as the Lebec/Gorman/Frazier Park area in southern Kern Co., while snakes occurring north of there (at least those I've seen on the northern slopes of the Tehachapis) are oreganus phenotypes.

Cheers,

BH
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