Our garter snake, Ribbon , was admitted to our wildlife hospital in after being caught in a grate. She needed two surgeries, including a special skin graft, to repair the injury. Although Ribbon recovered, she cannot properly expand to eat larger wild food items such as toads, which are her typical prey in the wild.
As a result, it was determined that she cannot be returned to the wild. They will secrete female pheromones to lure other males toward them rather than to the female. After the other males are away from the mating ball, the males posing as females will dart back to the female to attempt to mate. Garter snakes are ovoviviparous, meaning they bear live young. After mating, females store sperm in their bodies until they want to fertilize their eggs.
Garter snakes give birth to 20 to 40 live young at a time, though Beane pointed out that litter sizes can vary greatly. Parent snakes do not care for their young. There are 30 species of garter snakes and many more subspecies, according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
The taxonomy of garter snakes is:. Thamnophis sirtalis common garter snake : The common garter snake has the largest range, occurring in most of the continental United States with several subspecies, according to Beane. They are found everywhere from Alaska to Florida, though they do not live in the Southwest. Common garter snakes usually have three white, yellow, blue, or green stripes running the lengths of their brown or olive bodies.
Their heads are darker than their bodies. Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis Eastern garter snake : This subspecies of common garter snake is typical throughout the eastern United States. Though its body color may vary from brown to green, it almost always has three yellowish stripes on its back, according to the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Sometimes its body is splotchy, giving it a checked appearance.
Watch this video to see what Ashley saw. Garter snakes of Iowa Iowa has 28 different species of snakes, including four venomous species. You see, snakes in North American are not poisonous, they are venomous — which means they inject a toxin rather than secreting a poison Read More » Read More. Make a bendable snake with pipe cleaner and beads In honor of my big day today, holding a snake for the first time you can see the video here , we made a fun snake craft.
Check out more of our animal Read More » Read More. Paper chain snake instructions Crafts are so much more fun when the end result is actually something to play with rather than just hang on the refrigerator.
Or at least the next five minutes, Read More » Read More. Creepy but cool: How snakes can move without legs Besides their forked tongues, probably the main thing that creeps people out about snakes is their ability to move without legs or feet. Feeding the nature center snakes The naturalists make sure to wash their hands after handling the mice before picking up the snakes. Read More. Evidence that vagally mediated, volume-related feedback influenced the breathing pattern was found in some snakes, but this influence was weaker than in most mammals and other reptiles.
The results suggest that breathing in snakes is mainly a centrally programmed process, not markedly dependent on respiratory system mechanics or neuromechanical feedback. This arrangement is advantageous in view of the high, posturally variable compliance and the frequent regional distortions of the respiratory system that result from the unique structure of these animals.
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