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FLORIDA
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December 2001
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Click on any
photo to see a larger version
1 of 2 
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Was in Miami to visit family, so
not much time for herping, but did manage to get out a few times. Spent one morning with all of us wandering
around Crandon Park, site of the old Miami zoo on Key Biscayne, which now has
a flourishing colony of TMTC (Too Many To Count) Green Iguanas, as well as
established populations of Black Spiny-Tailed Iguanas (Ctenosaur), Striped Basilisks (Basiliscus vittatus) and Giant Ameivas (Ameiva ameiva).
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Black
Spiny-Tailed Iguana (left) and
Male Green Iguana (right) in orange breeding color
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Green
Iguana
normal color
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Giant
Amieva
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Striped
Basilisk
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Black
Spiny-Tailed Iguana
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Also went out one
night with my brother Ron and his way cute six-year old son, Ben. This was Ben’s first time road cruising
with the big boys, so we were especially eager to find something. Fortunately, in south Florida there are dirt roads along canals
where you can almost always find Water Snakes, and that night no was no
exception.
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Florida Water Snake
Nerodia fasciata pictiventris
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We switched over
to blacktop to try our luck on some roads criss-crossing an area of farms,
plant nurseries, and groves. Came
across a fresh DOR Corn Snake, which we usually don’t find on our December
visits to Miami. On the next pass, about an hour later, we
found another one along the same stretch of road, this time AOR. Obviously Ben brought us good luck, so we
let him do the honors. Can you tell he
was excited?
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Corn
Snake
Elaphe guttata guttata
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Later that week Ron
and I got out for a day in the field.
Instead of our usual Everglades and Big Cypress destinations we
decided to drive north for a change towards Lake
Okeechobee. The morning
got off to a snakey start as soon as we exited the expressway. As I slowed down to check out a DOR, a live
one suddenly appeared in front of me.
Ron jumped out of the car, made a dash, then handed me this musky,
nasty Garter Snake so he could take pictures and I could get smelly and bloody. After all, what’s a brother for?
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Eastern
Garter Snake
Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
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A bit farther on
we parked along a canal and explored some nearby abandoned buildings, but
that turned up nothing, so we cruised the levee road. Stopped for a while to discuss where to go next,
then drove around a curve to discover a dead end. We turned the car around, and looking back
we see a heavy-bodied snake crawling across the road in the same spot where
we had been parked just a minute before.
Good thing the dead end forced us to go back!
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Peninsula
“Intergrade” Kingsnake
Lampropeltis getula getula x L.
g. floridana
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This variety of
Kingsnake is considered an intergrade between the Eastern Kingsnake (L. g. getula) found further north and
the Florida Kingsnake (L. g. floridana ¾
also commonly called a Brooks Kingsnake) found only in extreme southern Florida. Another snake we hadn’t seen in a very long
while, and the first time ever during our winter visits.
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