Range in California: Green
Click the map for a guide
to the other subspecies.
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Adult, American Basin, Sacramento County |
Adult, Sierra Nevada foothills,
Calaveras County
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Adult, 4,000 ft., Klamath Basin,
Siskiyou County |
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Adult, Humboldt County |
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Adult, 5,800 ft., Trinity Mountains, Siskiyou County |
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Underside of adult, Klickitat County, Washington |
Juvenile, coastal San Luis Obispo County, just north of Santa Barbara County line |
Adult, Plumas County |
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| Adult, San Benito County. |
Adult found attempting to eat a non-native Leopard Frog in a suburban backyard in Fresno County. (The frog survived, but died later.) © Stephanie Mastriano |
Adult snake eating a California Toad.
© Pamela Greer |
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In some areas, Valley Gartersnakes overwinter in large groups. Here you can see a mass emergence of Valley Gartersnakes and Wandering Gartersnakes in early May, Lincoln County, Wyoming. © Leslie Schreiber |
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Habitat |
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Trinity Mountains habitat,
5,800 ft., Siskiyou County |
Coastal habitat, Humboldt County |
Habitat, 4,000 ft., Klamath Basin,
eastern Siskiyou County
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Habitat, agricultural canal,
Sacramento County |
Habitat, 400 ft., Butte County |
Habitat, Yuba County |
Short Videos |
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A Valley Gartersnake is discovered resting in the sun near the edge of a mountain pond which is still half-surrounded by snow. When I get too close, the snake races off, showing the speed with which this gartersnake can crawl and swim to safety. |
Valley Gartersnakes race over land and in water at a high-elevation pond in Siskiyou County. |
A Valley Gartersnake at a creek in the Plumas County mountains. |
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Description |
Nonvenomous |
| 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. |
| Size |
| Adults of this species measure 18 - 55 inches in length (46 - 140 cm), but the average size is under 36 inches (91 cm). |
| Appearance |
A medium-sized snake with a head barely wider than the neck and keeled dorsal scales.
The ground color is dark gray, black or brown. The dorsal stripe is wide and yellowish, and there is a yellowish stripe along the bottom of each side. The red on the sides of this Common Gartersnake are usually confined to the area just above the lateral stripes, in a single row, alternating with dark markings.The top of the head is dark - black, dark gray, or brownish. There is sometimes a bit of red on the sides of the head. The underside is bluish gray, and it may become darker toward the tail, or may become paler.
The eyes are relatively larged compared with other gartersnake species. |
| Behavior |
| Primarily active during daylight. A good swimmer. Often escapes into water when threatened. When first handled, typical of gartersnakes, this snake often releases cloacal contents and musk, and strikes. The species T. sirtalis is capable of activity at lower temperatures than other species of North American snake. |
| Diet |
| Eats a wide variety of prey, including amphibians and their larvae, fish, birds, and their eggs, small mammals, reptiles, earthworms, slugs, and leeches. This snake is able to eat adult Pacific newts (Taricha) which are deadly poisonous to most predators. |
| Reproduction |
| Mating occurs in the spring (and possibly the fall ) and young are born live, spring to fall. |
| Range |
Ranges throughout northern California, including the coast in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, south, mostly east of the coast ranges until just south of the Monterey Bay when it extends to the coast until roughly Santa Barbara County, and west of the high Sierras to the southern San Joaquin Valley, and east of the Sierras into the Owens Valley. T. s. fitchi ranges north all the way to extreme southern Alaska, and east into western Nevada, Idaho, western Montana, western Wyoming, and northcentral Utah.
T. sirtalis has the largest distribution of any gartersnake, ranging from the east coast to the west coast and north into Canada, farther north than any other species of snake in North America. Stebbins (2003) lists the elevation record for the species (not specifically this subspecies) as 8,000 ft. (2,438 m).
We are following Rossman et al. for the range of T. s. fitchi along the central coast. (The juvenile snake from the central coast shown above shows T. s. fitchi characteristics.) Stebbins and others show the range of T. s. fitchi remaining east of the coast ranges south of the Bay Area. Here is an alternate map showing this distribution.
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| Habitat |
| Utilizes a wide variety of habitats - forests, mixed woodlands, grassland, chaparral, farmlands, often near ponds, marshes, or streams. |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Colubridae |
Colubrids |
| Genus |
Thamnophis |
North American Gartersnakes |
| Species |
sirtalis |
Common Gartersnake |
Subspecies
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fitchi |
Valley Gartersnake |
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Original Description |
Thamnophis sirtalis - (Linnaeus, 1758) - Syst. Nat., 10th ed., Vol. 1, p. 222
Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi - Fox, 1951 - Copeia, p. 264
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
sirtalis - sirtalis like a garter - probably refers to the to striped pattern
fitchi - honors Fitch, Henry Sheldon
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
None
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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. m. marcianus - Marcy's Checkered Gartersnake
T. ordinoides - Northwestern Gartersnake
T. s. infernalis - California Red-sided Gartersnake
T. s. tetrataenia - San Francisco Gartersnake
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
Rossman, Douglas A., Neil B, Ford, & Richard A. Siegel. The Garter Snakes - Evolution and Ecology. University of Oklahoma press, 1996.
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.
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
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
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Status Listing
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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 Game |
None |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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