r/isleroyale • u/KodiakSnake • 14d ago

Wildlife / Moose / Wolves Snakes of Isle Royale

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Caught at least 6 garters and one northern redbelly snake which i regretfully didn't take a picture of. The copper garter and the red garter were truly special

68 Upvotes

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10

u/Signal-Weight8300 14d ago

Moskey Basin has a rock peninsula that was completely loaded with them. It was awesome. There were hundreds in the low bushes. I've never seen so many before in my life. Mostly Garter snakes with a few very similar ones I don't the name of. They were black.

4

u/KodiakSnake 14d ago

oh wow! now im sad i only passed by. those others were probably northern redbellied snakes as them and garters are supposed to be the only two snakes on the island.

13

u/CondorLady 14d ago

I worked on isle royale for 5 seasons and caught 400+ garters for genetic testing. They’ve got so many lovely colors!! There’s also ones that are fully black, some gold checkered, some with red and blue stripes, and the rarest was a black and blue garter. I only caught two of those! 

2

u/ParryLimeade 13d ago

/subscribe tell me more about this genetics testing

6

u/CondorLady 13d ago

We were looking to see if they were a distinct subspecies, but they weren’t. Results showed they were most closely related to garters in Ontario’s Thunder Bay region 

6

u/MaDrAv 14d ago

It's cool seeing the different variations of garter snakes. I was surprised there weren't any common water snakes, especially inland, so the snakes are just another neat little ecological thing.

2

u/sugarbush03 14d ago

Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing

1

u/ResearcherOdd2996 13d ago

Maybe I'm wrong but the first guy looks like a ribbon snake? Great pics! Im excited to hopefully find my own in a couple weeks. 😍

1

u/Whippdog 13d ago

I had one slither right in front of me on the Huginnin loop. Made me jump!

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u/Perfect-Drummer-6496 13d ago

I pull my canoe up on the rocks outside the store in RH anytime we need water, garbage tossed, or just looking for a snack.

Those damn things are everywhere on that beach, especially on hot days. My kids and I call it "Snake Alley."

I let them go first, I HATE snakes.