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RAUK - Archived Forum - unusual markings

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unusual markings:

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Tony Phelps
Forum Specialist
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
No. of posts: 575


View other posts by Tony Phelps
Posted: 11 Sep 2003
Caught a juvenile grass snake today near Fleet, Hants. The markings are most unusual, never seen one like this, it has a zigzag lateral pattern, making it look sort of adder like. Have photographed it, but cannot post, so I have left a message with Dave see if he will take pic on digi. (he will probably see this anyway).

Tony
Alan Hyde
Senior Member
Joined: 17 Apr 2003
No. of posts: 1416


View other posts by Alan Hyde
Posted: 11 Sep 2003
Hi Tony ,
I'd like to see this snake , very interesting.

How do you mean "See if Dave will take a pic Digi "? Do you have the snake captive then?

Any prob's let me know , i'm only up the road from fleet and i'd be only to pleased to take the pic.

Cheers,
Alan
O-> O+>
Tony Phelps
Forum Specialist
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
No. of posts: 575


View other posts by Tony Phelps
Posted: 11 Sep 2003
Thanks Alan, I'll see if Dave gets in touch, if not, then we could make arrangement to meet.

Tony
Alan Hyde
Senior Member
Joined: 17 Apr 2003
No. of posts: 1416


View other posts by Alan Hyde
Posted: 11 Sep 2003
Ok, Either way ,i'm looking forward to seeing this grass snake.

Cheers,
Alan
O-> O+>
Tony Phelps
Forum Specialist
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
No. of posts: 575


View other posts by Tony Phelps
Posted: 11 Sep 2003
Have been taking a better look at this little grass snake under a good light. When seen from the dorsal view the normal grass snake olive/green ground colour actual forms a dorsal zigzag, that is then edged with the black.Very unusual, sort of reminiscent of Vipera raddei or V.darevski markings. Its a one off, would have been good to see the rest of the brood though.

Tony
GemmaJF
Admin Group
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
No. of posts: 2090


View other posts by GemmaJF
Posted: 12 Sep 2003

A "Gradder"??? Fantastic find Tony


Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant
Alan Hyde
Senior Member
Joined: 17 Apr 2003
No. of posts: 1416


View other posts by Alan Hyde
Posted: 12 Sep 2003
Agreed! Great find and most unusual.

Thanks for posting the pic.
Alan
O-> O+>
David Bird
Forum Specialist
Joined: 17 Feb 2003
No. of posts: 515


View other posts by David Bird
Posted: 14 Sep 2003


Very unusual pattern Tony. I found this one the other week just north of Wareham will be obvious if I see this one again.
British Herpetological Society Librarian and member of B.H.S Conservation Committee. Self employed Herpetological Consultant and Field Worker.
David Bird
Forum Specialist
Joined: 17 Feb 2003
No. of posts: 515


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Posted: 14 Sep 2003
Give up with that I think. Gemma is there any method of uploading JPEG's as a file directly without having a web site (which the majority of people do not have) as I am sure more people would post photos if they could do it more easily.
British Herpetological Society Librarian and member of B.H.S Conservation Committee. Self employed Herpetological Consultant and Field Worker.
GemmaJF
Admin Group
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
No. of posts: 2090


View other posts by GemmaJF
Posted: 14 Sep 2003

 

 

Sorry about all that. David, you probably read before I deleted the duff post that I hope to open a public upload area for images on RAUK very soon to make things a little easier.

 


Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant
Tony Phelps
Forum Specialist
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
No. of posts: 575


View other posts by Tony Phelps
Posted: 14 Sep 2003
Seems a week for unusual grass snakes. Today I found two females, each with no trace of yellow/pale collar at all, and one was almost devoid of body markings, but a very nice shade of olive/green. The first female 82cm and the latter 75cm, both from the same site near Wareham.

Tony
Chris G-O
Member
Joined: 14 May 2003
No. of posts: 36


View other posts by Chris G-O
Posted: 03 Dec 2003
I was once given a couple of pickled grass snakes by Colin Howes at Doncaster Museum. They had thin yellow stripes running their entire length and they were labelled "Italian form". I didn't think anything of it but last year somebody phoned HCT reporting stripy grass snakes in the Don Valley, S. Yorkshire, and i began to wonder if the pickled specimens had in fact come from the wild in S. Yorkshire. Then at last Saturday's BHS snakes meeting, somebody told me about stripy grass snakes somewhere else in the 'North Midlands', can't remember who/where. So I'd be fascinated to know if there are any other reports like this. I haven't checked the Leighton, Smith or Frazer books etc.

Chris Gleed-Owen
Chris Gleed-Owen, Research & Monitoring Officer, The HCT & BHS Research Committee Chair
Chris Monk
Senior Member
Joined: 21 Apr 2004
No. of posts: 157


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Posted: 17 Aug 2006

The June issue of The Natterjack (BHS Newsletter) had an article on melanistic grass snakes in the UK mentioning two previous documented cases from Staffs in 1975 and Gloucester in 1971. It ended with saying "Finding a black grass snake here in the UK is like finding a needle in the haystack"

We now have two needles in Derbyshire. Firstly Dave Arnold produced some photos of a melanistic grass snake found near Clay Cross in June. (published in July issue of the Natterjack). Then this Tuesday I was called out to a garden backing onto fields where a black snake had been found by the owner. It turned out to be a very active juvenile grass snake that was completely black. The garden is about 1 km across some fields from Dave's specimen, so it may be the off-spring of the one he found in June.

The juvenile is temporarily housed in Sheffield with John Newton who hopefully will be able to post some pictures of it before returning it to the vicinity of where it was found. If you are lucky there might even be an account of how active it was, a British version of the soon to be released & much hyped in the media "Snakes in Planes" movie.

PS


Chris
Derbyshire Amphibian & Reptile Group
www.derbyshirearg.co.uk
Robert V
Senior Member
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
No. of posts: 717


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Posted: 19 Aug 2006

Chris,

Make that three will you! Last week I saw a small grassie that was completely black quite close to an atrophic pond in the north of Epping Forest. I am putting as much effort as possible into capturing for the photo records on here, but, as yet I haven't been successful.

heres hoping.

Cheers

R


RobV
Robert V
Senior Member
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
No. of posts: 717


View other posts by Robert V
Posted: 19 Aug 2006

PS,

and here's a particularly nice one of the said 'stripey variety'.

Enjoy

R

GemmaJF38948.4712384259
RobV
Chris Monk
Senior Member
Joined: 21 Apr 2004
No. of posts: 157


View other posts by Chris Monk
Posted: 20 Aug 2006

Rob

The PS on my posting should have been a call for forum members to look for melanistic grass snakes but I forgot to add it. With your one that's 3 seen just in the last two months this year.

Any more out there?

 


Chris
Derbyshire Amphibian & Reptile Group
www.derbyshirearg.co.uk
John Newton
Senior Member
Joined: 19 May 2005
No. of posts: 151


View other posts by John Newton
Posted: 21 Aug 2006

Hi all

Finally managed a few piccies of the melanistic grassie that Chris Monk retrieved from Clay Cross (Chesterfield) last week.

Its taken a while since the animal escaped from a 'snake proof' bag in the boot of my car (bag now in bin), and following an abortive (and expensive) attempt by the VW main dealer to remove seat/door panels etc. it still refused to be found.

It eventually reappeared  following the introduction of a second 'smelly' animal which I like to believe was the key reason for recapture!!.

Anyway, the animal is as melanistic as it gets, and virtually patternless - found less than 1 mile away from that shown on the back of the 'Natterjack' leaflet. Good chance of some interesting genetics at work here, so we will spend some targetted survey time here next year. The animal has fed this week (whilst I was waiting for the sun to appear, for piccies), and will be released at its point of capture. 

 

 

 

 

 


John Newton

South Yorkshire ARG
Chris Monk
Senior Member
Joined: 21 Apr 2004
No. of posts: 157


View other posts by Chris Monk
Posted: 30 Aug 2006
Might even be some more black grass snakes, although they could be melanistic adders. Birdforum.net has a thread running that started in May about small black snakes. One seen at Pagham Harbour at the top of the beach in May and then another one seen by someone in their back garden at Sevenoaks in August. Any views from Kent or Sussex about those?
Chris
Derbyshire Amphibian & Reptile Group
www.derbyshirearg.co.uk
Chris Monk
Senior Member
Joined: 21 Apr 2004
No. of posts: 157


View other posts by Chris Monk
Posted: 30 Aug 2007

To follow up this posting from last year, we have had another black grass snake in Derbyshire, this time on the southern outskirts of Chesterfield in early July. It is about 7km downstream of where the northernmost one was seen last year, so still in the same wider area suggesting there could be a genetic link between all three.


Chris
Derbyshire Amphibian & Reptile Group
www.derbyshirearg.co.uk

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