Common Garter Snake

Thamnophis sirtalis

Common Garter Snake

GASN

Status

The Common Garter Snake is uncommon to locally common throughout its range (Gibbons 1978).

Description

The Common Garter Snake is a medium-sized (46–123 cm), variable-patterned snake. Most specimens are brown, green, or reddish, with a pale yellow mid-dorsal stripe and a less prominent, light lateral stripe confined to scale rows two and three. Twelve subspecies are recognized.

Distribution

This snake occurs from southern Alaska, east to Nova Scotia, and south through the United States and into extreme northwestern Mexico. It is absent from much of the arid Great Basin region (Fitch 1980).

Habitat

The Common Garter Snake is a habitat generalist found in almost all mesic habitats, but it is not abundant in any (Mount 1975). It can be found in meadows, marshes, rocky hillsides, drainage ditches, and wooded residential areas.

Special Requirements

This snake requires abundant shelter such as rocks, logs, dense ground cover, and leaf litter.

Breeding Habits

Thamnophis sirtalis breeds early in spring, normally soon after emergence. Females give birth to 7–80 in late summer.

Food Habits

The diet is comprised primarily of frogs, toads, and earthworms, but it will eat fish, insects, and small reptiles (Fitch 1965).

Management Suggestions

This snake requires woodland clearings, usually with abundant ground cover, such as logs, rocks, and stumps. It apparently does well in roadside ditches, powerline and railroad rights-of-way, and fire-managed areas.

Additional References

Burt 1928; Carpenter 1952; Crews and Garstka 1982; Gibson and Falls 1979; Gregory 1977.