Mahoney

Non-herp family:me-Marine 32, husband-Travis 35, 2 sons-Keith 11 & Seth 9. Our Herp family:

3 Ball Pythons(Stitch, Chocolate, Neo)     2 Amazon Tree Boas     2 Common Redtail Boas(Aphrodite, Shere Khan)     1 Pastel Columbian X Hogg Island Red-tail Boa(Lady Lyoness)     1 Albino Columbian Red-tail Boa(Albee)     3 Dumeril's Boas(Demi, Bagheera, Sausage)     4 Kenya Sand Boas(Sandy)     2 Great Basin Gopher Snakes     1 California Aberrant King Snake(Aberrant)     1 Sinaloan Milk Snake(Coral)     4 Bearded Dragons(Pooh Bear, Roo, Piglet, Eeyore)     1 Argentine Black & White Tegu     3 Uromastyx Lizards (Mali-man, Eloise)     2 Irian Jaya BlueTongue Skinks(George)     1 Savannah Monitor(Georgia)     2 Albino Leopard Geckos(Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw)     5 Crested Geckos     2 Oriental Firebelly Toads(Bugs & Daffy)     3 Texas Tiger Salamanders     2 Japanese Giant Firebelly Newts(Tom & Jerry)     5 Australian White's Tree frogs     1 Red-eared Pond Slider(Big Red)     1 Yellow-Belly Pond Slider(Yellow Eyes)     1 African Sulcata Tortoise(Steve "Irwin")     1 Cherry-head Redfoot Tortoise(Rosie)     1.1 Chilean Rose-hair Tarantula (Phoenix, Fox)

http://myspace.com/coralmarine add me

It live most likely in florida

It is at least 4ft long

It is a good climber

It was most likely to have been born, raised, and escaped from captivity.

And in natual turns, it is redish brown.

And it has big, nocturnal eyes.

Now try to build off of these notes and figger out the species. I alredy have a answer to the quetsion. But the problem is can you get it too?

They call me the casmatic amigma. They call me jeff hardy.

ROCK ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

I own:

1 bearded dragon
2 leopard geckos
2 3-toed box turtles
1 sand boa

1 green iguana

AND COUNTING!!!!!!

The mystery snake is definitely a corn snake (Elaphe guttata), 100%!  It was found in the wild in South Carolina about a month ago, or maybe slightly further back.  It's a healthy, adult male roughly 3.5 - 4 feet long.  The person who caught it has given it to a herper who'll do his best to breed it to multiple females next season and get the trait firmly established in captivity.  I spoke with the owner at length in hopes of helping assure that he's successful in that endeavor.

At my recent photo session, I spent 2 hours taking images of it from every conceivable angle, and can attest to it being a pure corn snake, not a hybrid with a local obsoleta rat snake as some speculated (a natural speculation, I should add).  There have been a couple 'calico' obsoleta rat snakes over the years that had coloration resembling this, and I even wondered about its identity until I handled it in person.  This specimen's scales are virtually smooth, though slight keeling can be detected on those nearest the midline of the back.  I've promised all the best images to my friend Don Soderberg (South Mountain Reptiles in Texas) for his upcoming giant book of everything corn snake, so I don't want to 'steal the thunder' now by publishing too many of those close-up pics before the new book appears sometime this winter or next spring.

At this point, I'm not completely sure how to describe the trait except that my gut feeling says it's something new.  But I'll also willingly admit it might be leucism (adjective = leucistic), which has occurred in obsoleta rat snakes before, notable Texas rats (E. o. lindheimeri).  Often there are a few dark reddish scales present on them.  This corn's eyes look very much like those of leucistic Texas rats too.  Here's a close-up....

If this is leucism showing up in corns (finally!?!), it may be that the tendency for 'stray' pigmented scales is just amplified in this case, and may be showing the extreme on the heavy side of what its range might be.  Until more are produced to show us the range of variation, we can just guess.

*********************

Bill Love  /  BLUE CHAMELEON VENTURES

Just to let everyone know, I am Reptile_Dude...I just changed my username.

2.2  Savannah Monitors (Loki, Freya, Saga, Thor)
0.1  Albino California Kingsnake (Rin)
1.0  California Aberrant Kingsnake (Haku)
1.1  Three-toed Box Turtles (Bowser, Genba)
1.0  Red-Ear Slider (Iggy)
0.1  Snow Corn Snake (Sakura)
0.1  Sulcata Tortoise (Casca)

ROCK ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

I own:

1 bearded dragon
2 leopard geckos
2 3-toed box turtles
1 sand boa

1 green iguana

AND COUNTING!!!!!!

Here Herptile.

     Rest in Peace Odin!!!  Your life may have not meant anything to those that abused you; but you meant everything to me.  You will be missed my little friend.

2.2  Savannah Monitors (Loki, Freya, Saga, Thor)
0.1  Albino California Kingsnake (Rin)
1.0  California Aberrant Kingsnake (Haku)
1.1  Three-toed Box Turtles (Bowser, Genba)
1.0  Red-Ear Slider (Iggy)
0.1  Snow Corn Snake (Sakura)
0.1  Sulcata Tortoise (Casca)