Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis)
Description: Eastern garter snakes average between 18 to 26 inches long. The largest recorded length was 48.7 inches long. Females are typically larger than males. They are either a greenish, brown, or black color and have a distinct yellow or white stripe.
Habitat: The eastern garter snake will live in a variety of environments, with a preference for grassy or shrubby fields, including abandoned farmland, outbuildings and trash dumps. In particular the snake likes to inhabit stone walls that separate the forest from fields. It is also found along moist habitats such as lakes, rivers, streams, swamps, bogs, ponds, drainage ditches, and quarries. Snakes are present in urban environments in habitats that include "city parks, cemeteries and suburban yards and gardens". Eastern garter snakes like to conceal themselves under logs, stones and other debris that allow them to bask in the sunlight and quickly seek refuge from predators.
Range: The eastern garter snake has a wide range across eastern North America, as far north as southern Ontario and Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico in the south, along the eastern shores of America to the Mississippi River.
Diet: Eastern garter snakes mostly eat frogs, toads, slugs, and worms, but they will eat almost anything they can overpower.
Reproduction: Eastern garter snakes are ovoviviparous, giving birth to live young. Many males may try to mate with one female, resulting in a "breeding ball". The young are 5 to 9 inches long at birth.
Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its extremely wide distribution, presumed large population, and because populations are unlikely to be declining.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Reptilia - Reptiles
»» Order: Squamata - Scaled Reptiles
»» Suborder: Serpentes
»» Superfamily: Colubroidea
»» Family: Colubridae - Colubrids
»» Genus: Thamnophis
»» Species: Thamnophis sirtalis - Common Garter Snakes
»» Subspecies: Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis - Eastern Garter Snake
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Eastern Garter Snake", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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