Mountain Garter Snake

I am not exactly the biggest snake fanatic you'll ever come across, but I have learned to appreciate the role these legless reptiles play in the wide variety of ecosystems they inhabit.  Several times this year I've crossed paths with Mountain Garter Snakes (Thamnophis elegans elegans) while hiking in the Sierra Nevada, and one snake in Tuolumne Meadows was kind enough to pose for a few photos.
 

The Mountain Garter Snake is a subspecies of the Western Terrestrial Garter Snake, found in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  These snakes have a prominent yellow dorsal stripe, along with a lighter stripe on each side of the body.  They range in length from 18 inches to 43 inches (three and a half feet!) and prefer to inhabit damp areas, retreating beneath vegetation or rocks and logs when threatened.  Other subspecies and species of garter snakes tend to be more aquatic and regularly take to the water.  Garter snakes give birth to live young, as opposed to laying eggs like many other snake species. 


Mountain Garter Snakes are generalists when it comes to feeding and will take a variety of prey.  They have been found to eat worms, slugs, frogs, small fish, lizards, other snakes, small rodents and insectivores, birds and birds' eggs, and a number of other prey items when available.  But fear not: as members of the Colubrid family, garter snakes are non-venomous and generally harmless to people and pets.  (Happily, two thirds of California's snake species belong to this group!)

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