- Joined
- May 1, 2004
- Messages
- 2,290
I got a batch of six new Banded Water Snakes in last Saturday, from a buddy of mine down in Horry County, SC, who does "nuisance" wildlife control and often gets called out to golf resorts in and around Myrtle Beach to remove alligators, snakes, possums and other critters that the "snow birds" don't want to see. He's always on the look-out for interesting Water Snakes for my breeding program, and he really landed a "smoker" this time! I needed this little pick-me-up after fracturing my right knee cap a couple of weeks ago, believe me.
I present to you, for your consideration, this adult female Banded:
My first thought, upon seeing her, was that she was a 3/4 Red-Belly x Banded hybrid, but on closer inspection, her scale pattern and her marking patterns are 100% Banded. The red is just that intense-not orangish-red like on the Red-Bellies, but RED-red. You can make out the normal Banded belly pattern in the pic of her belly, which Red-Bellies do not have at all. I can only surmise that she is an erythristic, or excessively red-pigmented animal. Ironically, the "Flame" morph of Eastern Garter Snakes that Scott Feltzer breeds originated in almost the exact same locale in Horry County, hence his calling them "Myrtle Beach Strain" Flames. I don't know if this girl has the same sort of mutation or not, but it will be interesting to see if she proves out.
pitbulllady
I present to you, for your consideration, this adult female Banded:
My first thought, upon seeing her, was that she was a 3/4 Red-Belly x Banded hybrid, but on closer inspection, her scale pattern and her marking patterns are 100% Banded. The red is just that intense-not orangish-red like on the Red-Bellies, but RED-red. You can make out the normal Banded belly pattern in the pic of her belly, which Red-Bellies do not have at all. I can only surmise that she is an erythristic, or excessively red-pigmented animal. Ironically, the "Flame" morph of Eastern Garter Snakes that Scott Feltzer breeds originated in almost the exact same locale in Horry County, hence his calling them "Myrtle Beach Strain" Flames. I don't know if this girl has the same sort of mutation or not, but it will be interesting to see if she proves out.
pitbulllady