Category Archives: Reptiles

Snake of the night

The dogs found this, about one foot from the house:

Yep, it’s a timber rattler. You can’t see the rattles in this picture (although you can in these other ones by Gretchen), but it had three.

So I put it in a box. It didn’t like that: it really rattled. We drove it to a better spot in the woods, where it’s very happy now.

Good dogs, Yellow Dog and Brown Dog! They notified us but did not try to bite the snake.

Pictures by John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 1 June 2011.

-jsq

Update 8:45 AM 3 July 2011: Fixed picture link and added link to flickr set with Gretchen’s additional pictures.

Box turtle

Found this in the yard:

It’s a box turtle. Presumably either the eastern box turtle, Terrapene carolina carolina, or possibly a Florida box turrtle, Terrapene carolina bauri.

Here’s a size comparison: Continue reading →

Gretchen and her lizard

She did not like it in the sink.

She likes it fine but where she drinks.

Not with water, it would get wet!

In a glass with leaves, it can’t get out.

The lizard didn’t like the leaves.
“I’m a carnivore,” it said.
“Thanks for the water,” and
“Could you let me out to play?”

So we let it out, but it thanked Gretchen first.

-jsq

Corn snake

Gretchen was very amused to see me do the snake dance. This corn snake was lying in the path at the edge of the field, and I almost stepped on it. Probably it was sunning itself to get warm.

It’s harmless, except to small rodents that live in corn fields. Elaphe guttata is a constrictor. This one was 3 or 4 feet long. They’re native to the U.S. southeast from New Jersey to Texas. I did not know until that day that corn snakes can climb trees.