Found cute snek!

According to California Herps site, it seems like it is probably a California red sided garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis
https://californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/t.s.infernalis.html

See my post last week about the poisonous rough skinned newts in the pond being eaten by the otter. Turns out that these garter snakes can also safely eat the newts, which in turn makes them at least temporarily poisonous to predators because the garter snakes retain some of the newt's toxin in their bodies.

And I also just learned from the description that these snakes are also mildly venomous, but mostly not enough to hurt humans. This one was a little annoyed at being picked up, but generally fairly chill and not bitey.

#snek #Snake #Herps #CaliforniaHerps

#NewSpecies!
New odorous frog from #vietnam just jumped in:

Odorrana nagao

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FA4DCB78-DCBD-507C-B31E-B01A4E265E47
Publication: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1280.192981
#ZooKeys #OdorranaNagao

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #fauna #herpetology #herps #amphibia #frogfriday #frogs

#NewSpecies!
New snake from #india just sidled in:

Trachischium lalremsangai

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/8E4ED142-5236-597B-9941-E3F74AB72167
Publication: https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.39.e187919
#Herpetozoa #TrachischiumLalremsangai

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #fauna #herpetology #herps #reptilia #snakes

fun times in the forest: last night i heard some scrambling under the bed and thought "if this is a rat, then all 3 of these cats are useless because this is the bedroom - our most 'home-base' space - and it should therefore be the least likely to have a rat."

i thought i heard it scrambling toward the cat food bowl which is next to the bed. so i rolled over, turned on my phone flashlight, and was face to face with THE biggest cane toad i've ever seen. possibly it seemed bigger because it was <1 foot from my face and illuminated in the flashlight and i wasn't expecting it at all 😆. it was bigger than the toad that was using the cat water as a personal chillout pool last month (this one would not have fit in the cat water bowl), or perhaps it was that same one, but grown substantially since then!

anyway, after i composed myself, i blocked off its path back under the bed with a book, got my garden gloves and a bucket, and put it in the bucket (i could barely hold it in a single hand, it was so big). these guys don't have much of a defensive strategy aside from "be still, sit facing a corner, and hope you are mistaken for a rock", so they don't really try to escape too much. i tossed it in my azolla pond (where it should be much happier than under my bed). really hope the sucker doesn't try to come back.

fun/unfun fact: they were introduced to hawai'i because of their 'voracious appetite', as pest control. i really should make a zine highlighting at least a handful of the invasive species that were *deliberately* introduced to the island.

anyway, the pic doesn't really do it justice, but there ya go.

#herps #toad #hawaii #offgrid #JungleLife

1/2
Otter! In my irrigation pond! Others have seen them in there, but this is the first time I have. It was hanging out on the artificial floating wetland island I made out of a defunct standup paddle board. When it saw me, it slipped into the water, crossed the pond and skedaddled through the bushes into the creek.

There are also rough-skinned newts in the pond, coming here during breeding season.

But there's also a gruesome mystery here... (cont.)

#amphibians #herpetology #herps

#NewSpecies!
New skink from #vietnam just snuck in:

Sphenomorphus puhoatensis

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/EF1BEF71-871B-51E3-B709-80AC77BF33F2
Publication: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1279.188050
#ZooKeys #SphenomorphusPuhoatensis

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #fauna #herpetology #herps #reptiles #squamata #lizards #skinks