Finally! Jake immortalizing the collared lizard
Throughout this trip we had hip-hopped into and out of Arizona and we were now aiming for it again.

One of the lizard species that Jake wanted badly to see was the Great Basin Collared Lizard, Crotaphytus bicinctores. On earlier trips I had found these rock lovers common but on this trip they had proven nonexistent. We drove to many out-of-the-way locales and failed to see this pretty lizard, even where other observers had reported them only a few days earlier. Jake’s estimate is that we scanned 10,000 rocks to no avail. My estimate of the rocks scanned is about twice greater than Jake’s.

But finally, almost at the edge of the species’ range, Jake hollered” “STOP! I think I just saw one. Back up.” I followed his instructions and sure enough, sitting on the largest rock in an extensive pile was one lone Great Basin Collared Lizard. Another lifer for Jake. Fortunately the lizard seemed unconcerned by our presence and allowed us to take dozens of pix at close range.

The Grand Canyon was still closed due to the Covid-19 scare, so we traveled far into the Navajo Nation to try our luck, again for the Great Basin Collared Lizard as well as in hopes of other species. Even though another cold front had arrived we were fortunate enough to see a Great Basin Gopher Snake, another Lyre Snake, and a very pretty Night snake.

We were down to just one last night in the Sonoran Desert. Despite the seasonal chill we elected to try our luck for burrowing snakes in southeastern Arizona.

Like most, this Mojave Desert Sidewinder blends well with habitat color.
Now on to Utah where our target species was a Great Basin Rattlesnake, Crotalus oreganus lutosus (although the older taxonomy of C. viridis lutosus seems more fitting). But of course there were secondary targets to look for along the way. This night our “along the way” was in eastern California where we were hoping for a Colorado Desert Sidewinder, Crotalus cerastes cerastes, the only one of the 3 subspecies that Jake still needed. We had driven northward at dusk while darkness settled in.

Jake and I had been discussing the locales we needed to try for the Great Basin Rattler. Mother Nature, with her typical disregard for traveling herpers had continued to plague us with night temperatures just a couple of degrees too cool for night active species to be out and active. Many of the species on this trip that we had thought would be easy finds, shoe-ins if you will, had proven difficult at best. We were now down to only 3 days/nights remaining on this trip and the temperatures showed every indication of being problematic at best. So, with temps against us, we simply had to put as many hours on the road as possible.

About a half hour north of the almost ghost town of Trona we decided to turn around and head for the motel. Traffic was light but there were continually headlights behind us. Since were going fairly slow it didn’t take long for us to be overtaken. Trona was now behind us and several cars were closing the gap. Just about as several were poised to pass us, Jake hollered “sidewinder.” I had passed over it and once the cars whipped by I was able to turn and speed back. Sure enough, still lying quietly coiled in mid-lane was Jake’s lifer Colorado Desert Sidewinder.

Southward again and there was another sidewinder but we simply assured that it left the pavement. Was that a piece of rope in the other lane? I was able to stop quickly and Jake hopped out and returned with a beautiful little tricolored Variable Ground Snake, Sonora semiannulata. We were happy and now the motel was in sight.

Tomorrow Utah, tomorrow night, hopefully, a Great Basin Rattlesnake.

Mercedes, at home, alert, and on snail patrol.
Mercedes is back home. And he’s still alone. So Patti and I continue on our hunt for a female with which to partner Mercedes.

Mercedes is an Asian Keeled Box Turtle, Pyxidea (once Geoemyda) mouhoti. Now an Endangered species, a mere few years back this interesting turtle was a major component of the herp trade. And coinciding with the last statement, this taxon that was once so readily available, inexpensive, and easy to keep is now (year of 2020) almost impossible to obtain and cannot, without an almost impossible to get Federal Permit, be offered in interstate trade. So what happened to all of them? There are various explanations, but two that are almost certainly accurate are that they were just a 7” long brown turtle and that they were inexpensive. In the American hobbyist’s pet trade, if some bucks, preferably big bucks, cannot be made by breeding a herp there is no incentive to either keep or breed it. And all of the Mercedes’ of the pet trade fell into these categories.

A few dedicated hobbyist/breeders did hold on to a few of these turtles and a few, now a precious few, are produced each year. But it seems now that mortality pretty much equals captive production and those few lucky owners are holding tightly to the examples on hand. Breeding males can wreak havoc on the more placid females and if not closely monitored injury or death of the female may occur.

Threats to wild populations include habitat destruction including deforestation as well as for food and mostly (probably all) bogus traditional home remedy medications. The pet trade has also figured strongly in population reductions.

I mentioned above that Mercedes (now a 30 year captive) is “back home.” For the last 2 years he has been on an apparently unsuccessful breeding loan to a chelonian breeder in the northeast. We’re glad he’s back, and now we are scouring the USA for a female that we could get on breeding loan. Please, please, if you know of anyone maintaining this turtle as a pet please drop us a line. We’d like to be a part of the future availability of this species in the USA.

This box turtle is intermediate in color between the eastern and the Florida subspecies.
Like so many of Florida’s herps, Florida Box turtles, Terrapene carolina baurii, are no longer as frequently seen as once. Of course, when you stop to consider the very real reduction in natural habitat in the state of Florida, the immense increase in the traffic volume, and the slow, plodding gait of the turtle itself, this seeming reduction of the creature seems explicable—unfortunate but explicable. Of course the inexplicable segment in all of this is the deliberate destruction of road-crossing box (and other) turtles by the ROAD-IDIOTS that just have to prove that they know where each tire can do the most destruction to crossing wildlife.

But I digress. In the quarter century that I’ve lived in North Central Florida, I had seen what I thought to be a fair number in the earlier years and many fewer FL box turtles of late. An occasional one still wanders across our property or is seen elsewhere while I’m out scouring the roads and trails for photographable herps. And I see fewer still at the supposed point intergradation of the Florida box with the Eastern Box, basically at the St Mary’s River. And what have I found there?

The changes I’ve seen are gradual, not immediate as is often seen on range maps.South of the St. Mary’s I’ve see a couple that were obviously closer to an eastern than a Florida and a couple that have been just the opposite. Since I’ve never found any immediately north of the river I can make no statements regarding them. But staying south of the river and moving a bit further westward I’ve found 3 that are showing more signs of one subspecies than the other. Two have been judged on color and one has been on conformation, the latter meaning that when the turtle was viewed from above it was proportionately broader than a typical Florida box.

So what does all of this mean? Why nothing at all, but these facts did seem interesting at the time. Have you got any data to add? If so, send it along. I’d be interested in knowing your thoughts.