Red-Sided Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis)
Description: The red-sided garter snakes have an upper row of well-defined red spots, and lower row with patches of red color that smear on the dark area on either side of their back. These snakes have multiple yellow stripes present on their body. Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis is sexually dimorphic, where females are usually larger than males. The females can range from 18 to 24 inches in length, whereas males can grow up to 12 to 18 inches.
Habitat: The red-sided gartersnake is a habitat generalist and, during its active season, occupies habitat similar to that of the eastern gartersnake – forests, shrublands, wetlands, fields and rocky areas. High-quality hibernation sites that are deep and below the frost line are crucial for this snake, because its range reaches further north than that of any other land-dwelling reptile in Canada.
Range: The red-sided garter snake is found in Canada and the western United States, with a disjunct distribution in the western United States.
Diet: The red-sided gartersnake primarily eats frogs and leeches.
Reproduction: Red-sided gartersnakes generally breed in the spring, soon after emerging from hibernation, but also breed in the fall. In some areas, mating frenzies – involving many individuals, among which many males compete for access to a few females – occur near hibernation sites. Females typically give birth to 10 to 30 live young in midsummer but have been recorded as having up to 100 young! The young are 19 to 23 centimetres long at birth and mature in two or three years.
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 parietalis - Common Garter Snakes
»» Subspecies: Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis - Red-Sided Garter Snake
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Red-Sided 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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