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| Adult, Imperial County © 2005 William Flaxington |
Adult, Imperial County
© 2005 William Flaxington |
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Juvenile, Riverside County
© Jeremiah Easter |
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| Marcy's Checkered Gartersnakes From Outside California |
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| Adult, Cochise County, Arizona |
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Adult, Cochise County, Arizona |
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Adult, Starr County, Texas |
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| Marcy's Checkered Gartersnake Habitat in California |
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Habitat, agricultural drain,
Imperial County
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Habitat, Colorado River,
Imperial County |
Habitat, Colorado River,
Imperial County |
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Habitat, agricultural drain,
Imperial County
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Habitat, agricultural drain,
Imperial County
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Habitat, agricultural irrigation pond, Riverside County |
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Description |
Not Dangerous (Non-poisonous) - This snake does not have venom that is dangerous to most humans.
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Gartersnakes have toxins in their saliva which can be deadly to their prey and their bite might produce an unpleasant reaction in humans, but they are not considered dangerous to humans.
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| Size |
13 - 42 inches long (32 - 107 cm). Normally found from 20 - 28 inches (51 - 71 cm).
Neonates from 6.5 - 9.5 inches (17 - 24 cm).
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| Appearance |
| A medium-sized snake with a head barely wider than the neck and keeled dorsal scales. |
| Color and Pattern |
Tan, brown or yellowish brown with rows of large alternating black blotches arranged in a checkered pattern on the sides, and distinct yellowish stripes on the back and lower sides.
There is a dark blotch on the back of each side of the head with a light area between the dark blotch and the corner of the mouth.
The underside is pale and unmarked or smudged with dark pigment. |
Key to Identifying California Gartersnake Species
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| Life History and Behavior |
Activity |
Can be diurnal, crepuscular, and nocturnal, especially in hot weather.
A good swimmer. May dive when startled. |
| Defense |
| Like most gartersnakes, when picked up, this snake will often release its cloacal contents and musk. |
| Diet and Feeding |
| Checkered Gartersnakes consume mostly amphibians, but they also eat invertebrates, fish, snakes, mammals, and lizards, including whiptails, one of which was found in the stomach contents of a Checkered Gartersnake in New Mexico. (Herpetological Review 38(1), 2007) |
| Reproduction |
Bears live young from May to October.
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| Habitat |
Found in grassland, semi-arid land, and deserts, typically near water. In California, inhabits areas near streams, rivers, irrigation ditches, and irrigated croplands, in the desert.
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| Geographical Range |
Found in southeast California along the Colorado river and in the Imperial Valley in Imperial and Riverside counties. Ranges north of the Salton Sea in irrigated areas as far north as Mecca.
"It appears to be established but uncommon in suitable habitat in the southernmost agricultural part of the Coachella Valley." (David M. Goodward and Michael D. Wilcox. The Rio Grande leopard frog (Lithobates berlandieri) and other introduced and native riparian herpetofauna of the Coachella Valley, Riverside County, California. California Fish and Game 105(2):48-71; 2019)
Outside of California, ranges into extreme northern Baja California, southern Arizona, much of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, southern Kansas, and northern Mexico.
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| Notes on Taxonomy |
There are three subspecies of Thamnophis marcianus, two occur in Mexico and south to Costa Rica.
Alternate and Previous Names (Synonyms)
Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garter Snake (Stebbins 1954, 1966, 1985, 2003, 2012)
Thamnophis marcianus - Marcy Garter Snake (Eutainia Marciana; Eutaenia elegans marciana) (Grinnell and Camp 1917)
Thamnophis marcianus nigrolateris (Brown 1889)
Sonoran garter snake;
Marcy's garter snake
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| Possibly increasing their range due to irrigation in the desert. Apparently not negatively affected by introduced Bullfrogs. |
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| Taxonomy |
| Family |
Colubridae |
Colubrids |
Oppel, 1811 |
| Genus |
Thamnophis |
North American Gartersnakes |
Fitzinger, 1843 |
| Species |
marcianus |
Checkered Gartersnake |
(Baird and Girard, 1853) |
Subspecies
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marcianus |
Marcy's Checkered Gartersnake |
(Baird and Girard, 1853) |
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Original Description |
Thamnophis marcianus - (Baird and Girard, 1853) - Cat. N. Amer. Rept., Pt. 1, p. 36
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Thamnophis - Greek - thamnos - shrub or bush, and ophis - snake, serpent
marcianus - honors Marcy, Randolph B.
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garter Snake (no subspecies recognized)
Northern Checkered Gartersnake
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| Other California Gartersnakes |
T. a. atratus - Santa Cruz Gartersnake
T. a. hydrophilus - Oregon Gartersnake
T. a. zaxanthus - Diablo Range Gartersnake
T. couchii - Sierra Gartersnake
T. gigas - Giant Gartersnake
T. e. elegans - Mountain Gartersnake
T. e. terrestris - Coast Gartersnake
T. e. vagrans - Wandering Gartersnake
T. hammondii - Two-striped Gartersnake
T. ordinoides - Northwestern Gartersnake
T. s. fitchi - Valley Gartersnake
T. s. infernalis - California Red-sided Gartersnake
T. s. tetrataenia - San Francisco Gartersnake
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More Information and References |
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Rossman, Douglas A., Neil B, Ford, & Richard A. Siegel. The Garter Snakes - Evolution and Ecology. University of Oklahoma press, 1996.
Stebbins, Robert C., and McGinnis, Samuel M. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Revised Edition (California Natural History Guides) University of California Press, 2012.
Stebbins, Robert C. California Amphibians and Reptiles. The University of California Press, 1972.
Flaxington, William C. Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Field Observations, Distribution, and Natural History. Fieldnotes Press, Anaheim, California, 2021.
Samuel M. McGinnis and Robert C. Stebbins. Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles & Amphibians. 4th Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2018.
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Powell, Robert., Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. The University Press of Kansas, 1998.
Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Snakes of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
Bartlett, R. D. & Alan Tennant. Snakes of North America - Western Region. Gulf Publishing Co., 2000.
Brown, Philip R. A Field Guide to Snakes of California. Gulf Publishing Co., 1997.
Ernst, Carl H., Evelyn M. Ernst, & Robert M. Corker. Snakes of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003.
Wright, Albert Hazen & Anna Allen Wright. Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. Cornell University Press, 1957.
Joseph Grinnell and Charles Lewis Camp. A Distributional List of the Amphibians and Reptiles of California. University of California Publications in Zoology Vol. 17, No. 10, pp. 127-208. July 11, 1917.
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The following conservation status listings for this animal are taken from the October 2021 California "Special Animals List" and the October 2021 "State and Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Animals of California" list, both of which are produced by multiple agencies and available here: https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CNDDB/Plants-and-Animals. You can check the link to see if there are more recent lists.
If no status is listed here, the animal is not included on either list. This most likely indicates that there are no serious conservation concerns for the animal. To find out more about an animal's status you can go to the NatureServe and IUCN websites to check their rankings.
This snake is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
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| Organization |
Status Listing |
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| NatureServe Global Ranking |
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| NatureServe State Ranking |
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Wildlife |
None |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| IUCN |
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