Recent Field Trip

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, from the field trip I have learned how most of what I thought was an Eastern was actually a Prairie Garter snake.

Prairie garters are red sided garters although the former common name isn't as widely used. But anyway, that's why they all have Latin names so there's no confusion. I found it was quite useful to learn their Latin names. Perhaps you will to.

Both are Common garter snake (applies to all T. sirtalis')
Subspecies "eastern" garter is T. sirtalis sirtalis
Subspecies "Prairie Garter" A.K.A. "Red Sided garter" is T. sirtalis parietalis.
Subspecies "California Red-Sided" is a different snake - T. sirtalis infernalis.

And that concludes our lesson for today.