Lmst

Species Spotlight: Rough Green Snake!
Opheodrys aestivus is one of two species in the genus and the more southerly, ranging from southern New Jersey to the Florida Keys, and west to northeastern Missouri and Kansas down to the Trans Pecos region of Texas and parts of northeast Mexico. Throughout its massive range, its habitat is similar: shrubby tangles of vegetation and low trees especially along riparian corridors, where there is an abundance of food. They are one of the relatively few insect-eating snakes, enjoying snacking on caterpillars, crickets and grasshoppers, and other small invertebrates.
Entirely nonvenomous and harmless, these snakes live up to their name with mildly keeled scales and brilliantly grassy to lime green dorsal scales that transition to golden and then cream or white on the belly (which also makes them easy to spot at night, when they light up like a beacon in a headlamp as they sleep coiled in high branches). They max out at around 3 feet long, though as slender as they are they often don’t look very large even at that size. Nor is their defensive posturing particularly scary to us: they never bite, but will sometimes gape their mouths like they’re threatening to and flail about when picked up. Luckily for them, that defense is not often needed as their color makes them perfect matches to their environment. Turn your glance away for a second and that thin green body vanishes into even relatively sparse grasses or thin leaves.
Because of their diet however, this snake is heavily threatened by us. Their populations often nosedive near agricultural areas where pesticides both decimate their food supply (because it doesn’t just kill target insects) and can work their way up the food chain into the snakes themselves, poisoning them indirectly. More holistic methods and, more importantly, wide sweeps of intact habitat are needed to keep them common as they should be.

#opheodrys #greensnake #snake #educational
#animals #wildlife #nature #herp

schlangel

#Singapore #snake #herp #reptile #animal #wildlife #biodiversity #macro #nature

a tiny, possibly neonate, painted bronzeback on a sprig. Little thicker than a USB cable, the snakeling inhabits an unruly hedge that guards a golf club and its civil contents from the ungovernable spirits of a still-wooded hill.

After a long week at work, I spent a couple hours in a coffee shop this morning sketching this tree frog from start to finish. Looser than usual, but it felt good to create again. Absence of art really does make the heart grow fonder. #sciart #herp #artist

A detailed pencil sketch of a frog is featured in an open sketchbook, surrounded by art supplies.

After a long week at work, I spent a couple hours in a coffee shop this morning sketching this tree frog from start to finish. Looser than usual, but it felt good to create again. Absence of art really does make the heart grow fonder. #sciart #herp #artist

@darkuncle

Every web page with a comments section should have a "Herp Derp" button as implemented by @jwz on his blog.

#herp #derp #HerpDerp #comments #jwz #blog

agama sesat

#Singapore #reptile #herp #lizard #animal #wildlife #biodiversity #nature

a green crested agama lizard (Bronchocela cristatella) hangs on to a stalk, showing its underbelly and looking askance at the camera as it ponders its next move.

blaugen

#Singapore #reptile #herp #photography #nature #animal #biodiversity #wildlife

an earless agama (Aphaniotis fusca), a brown lizard with bright blue eyes, clinging to a tree trunk.

part of my macro workshop involved working w/ flash to overcome the extreme depth of field issues, i'm a bit meh on flash but me thinks this one's a keeper

(Note: all animals photo'd for this class were wild herps locally wrangled & returned to the wild after-- prefer not to post any picture of "collected" animals (however temporarily collected) w/out disclosure

#Fotomontag #PhotoMonday #Photography #FlashPhotography #Frog #Herp #Herptile #105mm

A beautiful shiny green tree frog with huge red eyes sits on the petals of a red tropical flower. This is the Red-eyed Tree Frog. La Tarde, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Photo by Peachfront.

newest episode of herp highlights is about tokay geckos (double onomatopoeia lizard) by Tom and Ben

https://herphighlights.podbean.com/e/229-tokay-geckos-will-remember-you/

#herp
#lizards
#reptiles
#gecko
#tokay
#onomatopoeia
#memory

I rescued a #leopardgecko from an animal shelter in Virginia two days ago! His name is Mango, age 7, and he was clearly beloved - he came with a whole trousseau of supplies and was quite a bit overfed. His previous middle school owner grew up and went to college, but these guys live for 20 years!

The #Fairfax animal shelter has two three more geckos available to adopt! #dc #nova #virginia #maryland #gecko #lizard #herp

Among the many reptiles I saw in the Okanagan, these sleek and elegant racers (Coluber constrictor) were the most common.

#snake #coluber #reptile #herp #inaturalist #macro #macrophotography #wildlife #okanagan #similkameen #britishcolumbia #canada

A close-up of a snake's face as it lies curled up in brown grass. The snake is a fairly uniform greenish-brown in colour, slender in build, and has a slender head with dark eyes.

Another backyard herp in the backyard, a toad
#photography, #365photodgraphy2025, #potd2025, #photoaday, #everydayphotographer, #photooftheday, #pad2025-147, #herp, #toad, #backyardphotography, #macro, #upclose

A toad looking up surrounded by blurred green background and a blurred gray in the foreground

Another backyard herp in the backyard, a toad
#photography, #365photodgraphy2025, #potd2025, #photoaday, #everydayphotographer, #photooftheday, #pad2025-147, #herp, #toad, #backyardphotography, #macro, #upclose

"Is it safe to go in the water? No Johnny, it is not!" At least not when critters like these are looking to take a chunk out of your leg. Snapping #turtle, Alexandria, Virginia, USA. 15-May-2025. #herp #herps #naturephotography

A half-submerged snapping turtle is seen in a shallow pond with a lot of tall green grass on the far shore. The turtle has lifted it's nose and head up out of the water, and part of the dome of its shell is also above water. The water is relatively still so there is a good reflection of the head and shell in the water in front of the turtle.

I was delighted to meet three new frog species on my trip to Winnipeg; this little one is the boreal chorus frog (Pseudacris maculata), a relative of the Pacific chorus frog from back home!

#frog #pseudacris #chorusfrog #amphibian #herp #inaturalist #wildlife #urbanwildlife #macro #macrophotography #winnipeg #manitoba #canada

A small frog sits on a tiny mound of dirt. The frog has a pale brown backsode, a pale green belly and underside of the jaw, and a darker green-brown streak along the sides of its face, torso, and thighs. Its eyes seem golden.

I finally encountered some live Ambystoma gracile (northwestern salamander) yesterday! They were out in force around a local lake, now that the temperatures have stayed above freezing for several nights in a row. Beautiful animals.

#salamander #ambystoma #caudata #herp #herping #amphibian #inaturalist #wildlife #wildlifephotography #macro #macrophotography #vancouver #britishcolumbia #canada

A slick, glossy salamander with a wide face and round eyes, with a brown dorsal side and a pale underside, stands in a cluster of leaf litter, head up as it looks slightly off from the camera.

I finally encountered some live Ambystoma gracile (northwestern salamander) yesterday! They were out in force around a local lake, now that the temperatures have stayed above freezing for several nights in a row. Beautiful animals.

#salamander #ambystoma #caudata #herp #herping #amphibian #inaturalist #wildlife #wildlifephotography #macro #macrophotography #vancouver #britishcolumbia #canada

This little Ensatina salamander wandered into our garage and was trapped in one of our humane mouse traps. After a quick photo session, I placed it out in some thick accumulated leaf litter under our big Japanese maple. #nature #salamander #Ensatina #amphibian #herpatology #herp #naturephotography

This cute skink (probably Lampropholis delicata) let me get pretty close to take a picture. It blends in pretty well on this wet, rotting wood. They're so shiny and cute!

#skink #reptiles #herp #hawaii #animals #nature #gardening

#herp

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