Sentences with phrase «garter snake»

An annual, three - week frenzy of non-stop sexual activity without eating is connected to shorter lives and degraded bodies in male garter snakes, a University of Sydney - led study has shown.

Montgomery's first - rate photo - essay pays tribute to zoologist Bob Mason, the «Snake Scientist,» and to an extraordinary natural phenomenon — the annual gathering of thousands of red - sided garter snakes in the Narcisse Natural Wildlife Management Area.

Just recently, a Regina, Saskatchewan family found 102 garter snakes in their basement and when they started poking around, they realized that the snakes had already started migrating — making nests in their kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms.

McGlothlin's team found that the ancestors of garter snakes gained toxin - resistant nerves almost 40 million years ago.

When a female garter snake gives birth, how many baby snakes will be in the litter?

Common garter snakes, along with four other snake species, have evolved the ability to eat extremely toxic species such as the rough - skinned newt — amphibians that would kill a human predator — thanks to at least 100 million years of evolution, according to Joel McGlothlin, an assistant professor of biological sciences in the College of Science and a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate.

Admittedly, the giant garter snake, native to the Central Valley of California, is an awesome critter — growing up to 64 inches in length.

A small urban balcony garden can harbour a nectar - rich rest - stop for beneficial insects like bees (which pollinate 70 % of our agricultural crops), butterflies and ladybugs, while a larger urban, suburban or rural home can welcome everything from beneficial insects to a litany of songbirds, amphibians such as frogs and toads (which eat flies and other pest insects), harmless insect - eating garter snakes, and even small mammals like bats, rabbits, red foxes and skunks.

He's a small garter snake, but I'm sure his larger friends will surface soon.

Waukesha County culvert extension project threatens Butler's garter snake Madison (AP)-- State wildlife officials say a road project in Waukesha County might end up killing a rare snake.

This arms race is most intense in pocketed regions along the West Coast, where rough - skinned newts and garter snakes co-exist.

It doesn't matter if it's a burly rattler or a tiny garter snake.

Experiments with nonvenomous garter snakes — selected because «we were nervous about bringing an animal with a really bad attitude, a pair of poisonous hypodermic needles in its mouth, and a deadly viral infection into the lab,» Unnasch says — showed that the virus persisted even during the snakes» hibernation and remained active even after 30 days of cold - induced sleep.

Findings reported today in the journal Nature suggest that male garter snakes emerging from hibernation impersonate females just so that other males will warm them up and conceal them from predators.

Red - sided garter snakes famously engage in what can only be described as orgies, forming large «mating balls» of writhing snakes.

Most garter snakes are flighty, tend to musk when handled, and are prone to water blisters.

When we spot a harmless garter snake, our brains light up with activity as we process the «threat.»

San Francisco's rapid transit system will pay more than $ 1 million after an endangered garter snake was found flattened at a construction site, officials say.

A select group of garter snakes can thank their ancestors for the ability to chow down on a poisonous newt and live to tell the tale.

Through volunteering with Park Stewardship, Ron saw first - hand the need to balance recreational opportunity with the conservation of endangered species such as the San Francisco garter snake.

They are the single most widely distributed species of reptile in North America, and in fact, the common garter snake, T. sirtalis, is the only species of snake to be found in Alaska.

That's what life is like for male garter snakes, which will go without food for up to 3 weeks to participate in a nonstop breeding bash, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

For red - sided garter snakes, beauty is literally skin deep.

Oates wants to build on a 1,887 - acre parcel in central California's Natomas Basin, but because of state and federal regulations protecting wetlands and endangered or threatened species such as the giant garter snake, Oates calculates he'd have to pay about $ 4.2 million to «mitigate» the impact of his development.

< Carve out niches by stacking landscape rocks so small «caverns» remain on the bottom — small bug - eating garter snakes, toads or other creatures will seek shelter here.

doobz: If you're seeing a garter snake that means you see grass... right now that is simply not fair and we'll be happy to send you truck load upon truck load of our white stuff.

Even so unimpeachable a remark as that reptiles lay eggs and mammals birth their young alive needs to reckon with the garter snake and the duckbilled platypus.

erinne, i just want to mention that our snake friend (a garter snake btw) was already living in our yard before we started composting.

«Garter snakes and newts are locked in a coevolutionary arms race where as the newts become more toxic, the snakes become more resistant,» said McGlothlin, who is also affiliated with the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech.

Today the fungus threatens the last remaining eastern massasauga (mass - uh - SAW - guh) rattlesnake population in Illinois and has been found to infect timber rattlesnakes, mud snakes, rat snakes, garter snakes, milk snakes, water snakes and racers in several states, Allender said.

«We think that the garter snake's evolved resistance to the newt's toxin can be used as a model for understanding complex adaptations that involve more than one gene,» McGlothlin said.

Garter snakes are extremely common across North America, from Canada to Central America, an everyday find in gardens.

A garter snake, or garden snake, or gardner snake, is any species of North American snake within the genus Thamnophis.

«This is everything from cobras to garter snakes to tiny geckos to the Komodo Dragon to the Gila Monster.

Garter snakes can eat them without dying.

Even though she's surrounded by male suitors, a female garter snake may still have some control over mating.

But when australian biologist Richard Shine of the University of Sydney and his colleagues examined the phenomenon in garter snakes, they could find no mating advantage to the she - males.

A female red - sided garter snake is surrounded by multiple males trying to mate with her in a huge mating aggregation in Manitoba, Canada.

WHEN A GARTER SNAKE OR THE OCCASIONAL BIRD attacks a newt, the predator often is able to snatch a limb or tail before the newt can slip away.

As even a garter snake will send some people ducking under the theater seat, something like an anaconda, the second largest snake in the world, should do just fine.