Mouse Meat and activity cycle

[EasternGirl]

Yep...just looked it up checkereds...T.marcianus...native to southern U.S. and Mexico...red-sided garters are native to northern U.S. and Canada....I think they can be found in other states but not usually in the south...so they would be used to cold temperatures. I'm sure members on here could tell you more about it, but the Narcisse Snake Dens in Canada are famous for red-sided garters.

[guidofatherof5]

Yep...just looked it up checkereds...T.marcianus...native to southern U.S. and Mexico...red-sided garters are native to northern U.S. and Canada....I think they can be found in other states but not usually in the south...so they would be used to cold temperatures. I'm sure members on here could tell you more about it, but the Narcisse Snake Dens in Canada are famous for red-sided garters.

[ConcinusMan]

Hey, that last map has some significance as to the debate going on here: http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/gene...-garter-s.html

Notice the range of concinnus? (now known to be outdated) Well, inside that range the lines between subspecies blurs. In the northernmost part along the washington coast, snakes actually are apparent intergrades between concinnus and pickeringi. In the southern part, along the So. Oregon coast and CA coast, it's difficult to tell if the snakes are concinnus, or fitchi. The farther into CA you go, the more they take on infernalis traits. It seems that the only ones that are definitely distinquished as concinnus are located in the Willamette Valley. Everywhere else, it gets "blurry". DNA mapping has already concluded that pickeringi and concinnus are all but identical on the genetic level. I guess that's why I'm not surprised that concinnus also have a locality specific blue morph.

And here's the really interesting part. SF garters are more closely related to east coast sirtalis' than they are to concinnus/fitchi/pickeringi

I guess what I'm trying to say is, it seems that west coast fitchi,concinus,pickeringi are really just one happy sirtalis "household".