Creepy & Crawly... yes, but still COOL to me!

I guess I'll tell everyone up front that this is the blog where I post pictures of snakes, turtles, lizards, and a couple other creepy critters that even I don't like!  So I give anyone who really doesn't want to see this kind of stuff permission to skip this one - but you're missing out!!

Texas, especially west Texas, is pretty well known for having many different species of snakes, turtles, and lizards that are native to the area.  There are several species of venomous snakes in the Trans-Pecos, including western diamondback rattlesnakes, mojave rattlesnakes, rock rattlesnakes, and Trans-Pecos copperheads... just to name a few!  Of course there are even more species of non-venomous snakes found in Texas.  One of these, the highly sought after grey banded kingsnake, lives here in the Chihuahuan desert which brings in snake fanatics from all over the place! Bob has shown me many articles about people coming to this part of the state to look for them - many of them coming year after year and not finding any! I have not seen one myself - which is no surprise because 1) I haven't been looking for them and 2) even if I was looking for them I doubt I'd find one right away.  Of course being in the desert brings out plenty of lizards too!  These are not quite as easily identifiable (at least to me) and tend to run and hide as soon as they are spotted, which makes it even more difficult to figure out what just ran across the road in front of me!  Still, I even have a couple pictures of lizards.  Turtles and frogs are a little less common in the area since it is so dry, but there are a few species that live in certain places where there are ponds or rivers (like the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park).  Anyway... that was just a little intro to TX herps.  Last semester I took a herpetology class which is how I saw a lot of what you'll read about in this blog.  If not for that class I'm sure I wouldn't have seen as much as I have so far (at least in the way of herps) since I've been down here in TX.

Ok, here come the pictures, turn back now if you don't want to see them :)

This was one of the labs I went on for my herpetology class.  We went to a few "ponds" to look for mud turtles.  As you can see, there was not much water left in the pond.  We didn't find any mud turtles in this tank, but we did go to another one where there were quite a few turtles buried down in the mud - hence their names, mud turtles.

Here is a picture of a yellow mud turtle.  How can you not love a face like that??  There is another species of mud turtle, the Big Bend mud turtle, that is only found in one small area in the Trans-Pecos.  We spend another lab setting turtle traps (which were basically just big hoop-like nets that the turtles can swim into, but not out of) trying to catch the rarer of the two species, but didn't capture any.

Another one of the herp species that prefers water is this little guy here.  And when I say little I mean little!  I know it is hard to tell scale in this picture, but he could probably fit on top of a quarter or half dollar.  This is a canyon treefrog.  This is another species I picked up during one of my herpetology labs.  We started lab a little later so that we could see critters that come out after the sun goes down.  We hiked down into a very neat canyon that has a little pool of water at the end of the trail.  That's where we found this frog.  A few of the snake pictures further along in this post are also from that canyon.

Here is a lizard that I saw during one of my herp surveys for my thesis project.  Still not entirely sure what species it is.  Maybe a type of fence lizard or tree lizard.

Here is another lizard that I believe is the same species as the one above.  You can see how difficult they can be to spot sometimes.  The only reason I saw both of these lizards is because they happened to move and I caught them out of the corner of my eye.

This awesome critter is a Texas horned lizard.  They are so cool!!  There are at least four species of horned lizards in Texas, but I think this one is the best.  I'm sure you can tell why its called a horned lizard!  This was another herp species that I saw during one of my herpetology labs (actually the same lab as the one during which I took the mud turtle picture).

Here is another look at him.  He was fairly calm sitting on one of the other student's hands.. which worked out nicely for those of us that wanted pictures!  :)  I like these guys because they are pretty colorful!  The other horned lizards are a little more dull looking, but still cool.

They are kinda funny looking from this view - more round than I expected they would be!  One really interesting defense strategy Texas horned lizards have is that they can shoot blood out of their eyes!  Our professor tried to get this one to do it but he wouldn't... too bad.  Bob and I watched a show about it when we were in Florida, and then he said he read an article about it later that said they use it mostly when they are being preyed upon by coyotes and only rarely if they're being harassed by humans or something else.  I thought that was pretty interesting too - guess they're pretty smart - and know when they don't need to waste any blood!

This is another species of horned lizard, the mountain short horned lizard.  We saw this one when we hiked up to Mount Livermore on the Davis Mountains Preserve where I do some of my field work.  Pretty cool looking huh?  See what I mean about them not being quite as colorful as the Texas horned lizard?  It's hard to tell in this picture, but these guys do have a little color on their sides and faces.  And the white that outlines the dark spots on their backs gives them a brighter look - in my opinion.

These don't shoot blood out of their eyes, but they do bear live young (meaning they do not lay eggs) which I think is really cool.  There are quite a few species of lizards and snakes that bear live young, like most of the snakes in the family Viperidae - the rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cottonmouth. Had to ask Bob about the snake one to be sure, and I was right :)  There have been scientific studies done that suggest bearing live young is an adaptation reptiles that live in higher elevations have acquired.  Eggs laid in higher elevations where it may be significantly colder are at a greater risk of not developing at all, or developing very slowly compared to eggs that are laid in warmer climates.

I think that is all of the turtles, frogs and lizards that I've seen so far... so onto the snakes!

This is the first snake I saw in Texas and the first western diamondback that I've ever seen.  This was only my second day in Texas after making the drive down from Pennsylvania with Bob.  We had spent most of the day in Big Bend National Park and Bob kept his eyes peeled to the road for snakes on the way home.  We finally spotted one crossing the road and I managed to not run it over.  We got a couple good pictures of it and then left it alone.  It was exciting though!  I'm pretty sure that was Bob's first western diamondback also.

Here is another western diamondback.  This was one we saw during one of my herpetology labs.  Again, we waited to start lab until it was dark and then we drove back and forth down a stretch of road south of Alpine waiting for the snakes to come out and warm themselves on the road.  You can see how they vary in color.  This one is very brown - and blended in well with the road!  The one in the picture above is much more grey and lighter colored.

Here is another western diamondback (obviously the species I've seen the most of!).  This was taken in Black Gap when I was there with another grad student checking some of my trail cameras.  There are a few dirt tanks full of water in the area and I had one of my cameras set up there since the wildlife usually gather there.  This one was moving right along the water's edge when the other grad student spotted him.  He didn't even rattle at us, and thanks to some good zoom capabilities on my camera I got a couple of good pictures without actually disturbing him too much!  This is another light colored one.  You can get a pretty good look at their pattern from this picture too.

Here is a different species of rattlesnake, the rock rattlesnake.  Can you spot him in the picture?  I took this picture and I even have a hard time figuring out where his head and body start sometimes!  This was taken in the same canyon as the canyon treefrog.  Another student spotted him first and even though he and I had both heard him rattle a little and then stop, our professor didn't believe us that it was a rattlesnake until he went over himself and made it start rattling like crazy!  That convinced him.  This one posed for us for a little while and then started moving on, so we did too.  It was cool though, I had never seen one of those either.

A few minutes after we found the rock rattlesnake we found this Trans-Pecos copperhead.  They're so pretty!  These are a little more brighter than the copperheads that you see around home and further east (in my opinion).  This species isn't a rattlesnake, but they are still venomous - although not quite as dangerous as a rattlesnake.  I was so excited to see this one because I had been looking at pictures of the different snake species that would be here in some of Bob's field guides back home and this was one that looked so great and I really wanted to see it!  I haven't seen one since then, but that's ok.  I still have time :)

I know this isn't the greatest picture, but if I remember correctly this is a blotched water snake.  Northeast of Fort Davis there is a town called Balmorhea.  There is a state park there that has some wetlands, and then further into town there is a big reservoir that attracts lots of wildlife - especially birds.  So in that area where there is more water they get some more aquatic species than in other areas of the Trans-Pecos.  We went there for a herpetology lab and saw two of these water snakes, and also some softshell turtles (which I have pictures of, but they weren't very good because the turtles were underwater and moving).  Water snakes are not venomous - but I've heard from Bob and other snake guys that they tend to have a bad attitude and can be mean.

This is a bullsnake.  They also are not venomous.  This one was crossing one of the roads that leads to where I have my bear traps set at Black Gap.  We were driving down it one morning and this guy had come out to warm himself on the gravel.  We had to encourage him quite a bit to move off the road before we could drive past.

Here is another view of the bullsnake.  He was pretty big!  He almost stretched completely across the road.

Ok, that is all I have for the snakes.  These last couple of pictures even I don't like!  But in order to accurately represent the wildlife in Texas, I owe it to them to include them in the blog.  For some reason, a lot of people who are interested in snakes and other herps, are also interested in spiders and other truly creepy critters.  That's why I figured it was appropriate to include these next couple of pictures in this post - because I am definitely not writing an entire blog post on just them!  

I will admit something...  I know that I am supposed to be a wildlife biologist and love and respect all kinds of wildlife... but I really don't like bugs! I don't mind them so much in the wild and outside because that is where they naturally reside and belong, but when I see them in the house I instantly turn into a 12 year old girl that runs and gets her daddy to come kill them - ask him, it's true, and he makes fun of me for it :) Unfortunately many of the bunkhouses that I stay in while doing my field work have quite a lot of resident spiders living in them, and since Dad isn't with me all the time I've had to learn to set my fears aside and get over it (or grab a whole box's worth of tissues to kill them with).  That still doesn't mean that they don't creep me out!

This is the kind of stuff that gives me nightmares!! Now, I know that it is hard to tell how big this is in this picture so I'll tell you - this many legged scary creature that in my opinion shouldn't even exist was at least 8 inches long. That is way to big for a bug. If I had one of those in my house I'd probably sleep in the car until I knew it was gone.  Ugh, I'm getting all itchy just thinking about it!  Anyway, this is the only one of these that I've seen so far and it was last semester, also in the canyon where we saw the treefrog and other snakes.  Hopefully I'll never find one again!

If it came down to having a tarantula in my house or one of those giant centipedes in my house - I'd definitely settle for the tarantula!  This was down at Black Gap again.  I had seen several run across the road in the evenings but had never stopped to try and get a picture.  I was there with another grad student and told her that if she saw one to let me know so I could get a picture.  Well we didn't see one for the rest of the day, but the next morning I went to walk out the door of the bunkhouse (and was actually paying attention to a different rather large spider that was hanging out on the wall in the house) when this guy scared the crap out of me!  Obviously he was MUCH larger than the spider I was worried about in the house, so I quickly got over my fear of that one and slammed the door!

Here is a picture of the door from the outside.  For some reason looking at this picture makes him look smaller than he was in real life.  But that is still a huge spider to find on your door!!  So, as you can see, I got my pictures of a tarantula...  Since then I have also seen a few tarantulas running around on some of the sites where I set my mammal traps.  I'm dreading the day I open a trap to find a big one trapped inside!

I think the tarantula's are growing on me (although that doesn't mean I want to keep any in the house... Bob).  But I want nothing to do with those centipedes!!

Well that's all I have for this blog.  I know they are not always the cute and cuddly kinds of animals most people (including me) enjoy the most, but reptiles and amphibians really do have some amazing adaptations that make them awesome creatures.  I have Bob to thank for most of my knowledge and respect for them.  If not for him I don't know how much interest I'd really have in them.  I actually really love salamanders... but since they do require water for at least part of their life, they are not at all common in this area.  Still, the herps that are here are pretty cool and I'm glad I've had the chance to see some that I definitely wouldn't see back home in PA or NJ.  I hope I helped some of you reading this also gain a little more respect and interest in them :)

Thanks for reading!!

Laura