It’s always fun to see a snake species I haven’t encountered in the wild before… while teaching the Chiricahuas Trees Course last week in southeastern Arizona, participant Cris Falco spotted it crossing the trail, and @forestpathologist yelled back to me about a “green snake”, which I instantly registered as Senticolis triaspis (Green Rat Snake). Mostly occurring in Mexico into Central America, where two other subspecies occur, this northern subspecies (S. triaspis intermedia) barely ranges into the US only in southeastern Arizona.
I had kept and bred this species in captivity eons ago when I was more of a herper, but these days, I would much rather encounter snakes in the wild. Being out of the loop with the herpetoculture world for quite some time, I did a quick internet search and was discouraged to find more wild-collected Senticolis for sale than captive-bred specimens… and both options being offered for high prices. Hopefully this individual gets to continue it’s existence in the beautiful Chiricahua Mountains rather than ending up in a cage somewhere, and hopefully anyone wishing to keep this (or any) species chooses captive-bred options. Adam Black
A cool looking snake that Steve may be familiar with.
Adam is a naturalist\botanist extraordinaire. His page has things I never heard of.