Hi Everyone,

I am currently enrolled in a graduate class in animal behavior and have chosen Thamnophis for a class project. This relates to an observation I made in childhood catching snakes.

I grew up in central Philadelpia where there were no wild snakes. Hence, when I was a boy I captured garter snakes in the wild in only two areas. One was on a couple of islands in Bucks County in S.E. Pennsylvania (boy scout camp). The other was in a rural area S.E. of Syracuse, New York (some land belonging to relatives).

Since I only played with the snakes for awhile and then let them go where I had found them, I never had the opportunity to compare the two side by side. They did appear very similar from memory, though.

My question is, based on the areas of capture, what would be the best guess of Thamnophis experts here as to the species/subspecies of these snakes. Is it possible that snakes from both areas were the same species? (That they were genus Thamnophis is clear).

Although visually the snakes from the two areas were quite similar, in behavioral terms they were distinct in one respect. All of the Pennsylvania snakes bit me but none of them released a particularly noticable odor. None of the upstate New York snakes bit even after a half an hour of handling but all released that famous odoriferous secretion from their post-anal glands. I wonder if this was an artifact of small sample size or if anyone knows anything more about differences in predator defense behaviors in garter snakes from different regions?

It would seem that biting might be an effective defense against predators only somewhat larger than the snake itself, such as bullfrogs. On the other hand, rendering oneself unpalatable would be effective against larger predators such as racoons. Just a thought.

I hope that these were the same species because then I could design an experiment to test the heritability of these two types of predator defense behaviors. Any insights/feedback from members of this forum would be appreciated. Thanks!

Chris