Field Herper.com

Field notes and photography by Bryan D. Hughes
Feb
9th
2017

Eastern Gartersnake in the underbrush

One of the snakes we found quite often while looking for timber rattlesnakes in Pennsylvania were these Eastern Gartersnakes. They’re unusually stocky and short, relative to the garter species in the West. I had a lot of fun finding them, and learned their musk is pretty awful stuff. Maybe it’s just different than what I’m used to growing up in Oregon … I smelled terrible most of the trip because of it.