Herps found in
the Saint George, UT area
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On my way to pick up the crew, I stopped in
central UT to herp with Thomas Wilder for a day. We
started with a nice GB Rattler (Crotalus o. lutosus).
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Thomas found this juvenile GB rattler on a steep
hillside under a rock. Nice looking little lute!
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The lizards were out in full force such as this
plateau fence lizard (Sceloporus tristichus)
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Common sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus graciosus)
hanging on a rock to incubate a developing clutch.
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A large gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer
deserticola) was found on the crawl along one of
the creeks.
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| This juvenile wandering garter snake (Thamnophis
elegans vagrans) was found not far from the gopher
snake. |
Great Basin gopher snake juvenile that was found
on the side of the road just before dark. |
What I thought was maybe a snake but probably a
tar stripe in the middle of the road turned out to be my
lifer Utah mountain kingsnake (Lampropeltis
pyromelana) |
This individual displays the high black phenotype
that some localities in Utah are famous for.
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A last look as this snake crawls off down by the
creek. What a great find and a fitting end to road
cruising with Thomas.
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I picked up the guys and on our way to Moab, we
came across a couple Great Basin rattlesnakes (Crotalus
oreganus lutosus)
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Another nice sagebrush lizard basking on the
slickrock.
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We were able to find a couple common lesser
earless lizards (Holbrookia maculata), another
lifer for me.
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Earless lizards are grassland inhabitants and are
similar to horned lizards, aside from the spikes. I was
very happy to find these guys!
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An ornate tree lizard (Urosaurus ornatus)
that was looking nice hanging out in Canyonlands.
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We came across this rattlesnake, which appears to
be a midget faded rattlesnake (Crotalus organus
concolor), although they are somewhat difficult to
tell from the Hopi rattlers in the same area.
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Another tweener, but this one is probably a Hopi
rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis nuntius) found not
far from the previous rattlesnake in Canyonlands.
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Another view of the presumed Hopi rattlesnake. A
beautiful snake in its own right.
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We found this Hopi rattlesnake a bit further
afield of the other two and this one came from a
population that is definitely a San Juan county viridis.
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Another larger Hopi rattlesnake found a few miles
from the previous snake.
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I was very happy to hike up this mountain
kingsnake as we decended the north rim of the Grand
Canyon. Two pyros in a week!
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The main target of our hike down the Grand Canyon
is the aptly named Grand Canyon rattlesnake (Crotalus
oreganus abyssus), which Dustin spotted coiled on
the bank of the river at the bottom of the canyon.
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After finding this beauty, we made the long trip
out, getting out of the canyon just before sunrise.
After a breif sleep in the car, we made our way to
Vegas. |
The main target in Vegas was found on our first
night there and was a fine example of the Panamint
rattlesnake (Crotalus stephensi)
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I don't think we could have found a nicer example
for our lifer Panamint! Love that blue color. We found
all 4 Crotalus targets, making this another successful
Rob Stone herp trip! |
