|
Distributon |
|
This snake lives in the west of Mexico on the peninsular Baja California. There it is distributed fom Baja California Norte down to the cape region of Baja California Sur and on some of the island off the coast. Earlier literatur named the area of the town La Paz and its mountains as the (natural) border to the subspecies vertebralis. But (Grismer, 2002) recognised, too, a greater intergrade area to the vertebralis in the south of the its distribution area. In the north it borders the distribution areas of the subspecies annectens and affinis. This subspecies intergrades with all the other bordering subspecies of Pituophis. (Grismer, 1997) rejected the subspecies status of the bimaris and dicribed it as a color variant of vertebralis. But not all other sientist agree...
|
|
Description |
|
This snake is on its back orange, yellow to sandcolored wich brighten mostly towards the belly into a grey tone. On the back there are fewer than 50 saddle spots. The color of this saddles begin with dark brown to black in the neck, lighten a little up to a brown tone in the midbody and become black towards the tail. Other individuals can have black saddles over all. On the side there is a row of smaller dark spots between the saddles. Below this there is a second row with smaller dark spots. The saddles are clearly seperated from midbody to tail, but in the forepart of the body mostly the saddles and sometimes the side spots are connected to each otheres. The belly is white to yellowisch and mostly patternless. The head is relativ slender and colored light brown or orange to red without markings. Total lenght: Most of this animals stay below 1,5m. The body is relativ slender for a member of the genus Pituophis. The scales are keeled. In midbody there are 27-30 scale rows. Speciality in head scalation: 4 scales in front of the eyes (Präfrontalia). The snout scale is high as broad (Rostrale - Nasale 1:1)
|
|
Habitat |
|
This gopher snake habits the dry areas ot the Baja California. Here are elevations from coast beaches up to mountain tips in aprox. 3000m. A central part of the distribution area is the Sonora desert, exactly the Vizcaino desert. This area is not completely dry because of moist air comes from the Pacific ocean and wets the landscapes in the morning. Because of this there grow a lot of vegetation compared to other desert.
|
|
Way of life |
|
In literatur you don’t find a lot about this snake. Grismer, 2002 named a lot of new details. This snake only seldom is find in habitat, much more animals can be find in road- and roadschoulderhunting in the early night. Other were found flatned by cars. So this animals will become noctural in the summer like so much other snakes. Dayover they live mostly in rodent tunnels.
|
|
Diet |
|
In habitat this snake mainly feeds upon several sorts of rodents.
|
|
Hibernation |
|
This subspecies hibernates in the northern part of its distribution area. The most areas of its distribution keep frost free in winter. In the spring it becomes quickly warmer, so the hibernating durination there can be short. South of the Vizcaino desert the bimaris don’t hibernate (Grismer, 2002).
|
|
Reproduction |
|
The reproduction of this subspecies will not be different to the subspecies vertebralis.
|
