tingkunluo's Favorites

Chance encounter with this neonate near the top of a rocky knoll. It did not budge during 20+ minutes at this site during field activities unrelated to herptofauna. Time of discovery ~10 am PDT, temperature 80 degrees.

Took photo of gray hawk on distant branch, was surprised to see it had an ultra-thin, long snake in it's beak! Another user recommended the ID as brown vinesnake, as we were in its territory/northern range.

Photo taken from my record on NAHerp.com

Specimen found during 2nd year survey (2004) for the Herpetological Inventory of the Chihuahuan Desert National Parks. It was the only alterna found within any of the surveyed parks. Specimen deposited within the MSB per survey protocol.

https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/439721

Found this lil one which I have never seen a color morph like this for a Mud snake. I determined it to be one based off the visual/physical features such as the “tail spine”, pattern, head/eye shape, as well as a divided anal plate.

There is a nice paper written with contributions by many people in Herp Review on this species. This was the most northern found boa sigma as of this date. I waited for the paper to be final before posting this. People always try to capitalize on others and take finds. Feel free to read the published paper now.

Two snakes found together near mouth of cave (~10 ft depth); neither rattled, and one moved around curiously. A third snake was heard rattling deeper down the cave but could not be located.

Location obscured.

This is the first known specimen of ridgenose rattlesnake from the Peloncillo Mtns. This snake was given to me by NM Game and Fish, as I was studying obscurus on a grant from them at the time. This was a gravid female that delivered six offspring some months after capture.

A friend captured these images on her front porch. Realized later that they were raiding the nest of the Canyon Wren and must have climbed the rain gutter next to the bench to get to it. There were two snakes working together!

A 1967 snapshot in time, back before species protection and the TNC preserve. Per Kauffeld-inspired reverential respect, we carefully photographed and released these two specimens---which were found within 100 feet of each other. Golden memories....