Arizona Epic Part 4

The past few days have been so herp-ful that I have not had to time to blog! Here are the cool critters we have unearthed so far on our Arizona Epic (one day left).

We spent a day setting traps for Sonoran mud turles (Kinosternon sonoriense) in Tex Canyon with Justin Congdon.

Caught one! In total, we trapped 10 or so.

Here's a nice one up close:

A wee hatchling:

Here's Justin using a portable X-ray to image the adult females for eggs:

We have been steadily chipping away at the rest of the snakes left on our list. Here's a gorgeous mountain patch-nosed snake (Salvadora grahamiae):

We saw lots of stinky checkered garter snakes (Thamnophis marcianus):

Ringneck snake (Diadophis punctatus):

Sonoran Desert kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula splendida):

Sonoran mountain kingsnake (Lampropeltis pyromelana):

Best snakey find of the trip, Chihuahuan hook-nosed snake (Gyalopion canum). These are super rare!!

The hook-nosed snake is not to be confused with this glossy snake (Arizona elegans):

A very wary looking female crevice spiny lizard (Sceloporus poinsetti):

Great Plains skink (Plestiodon obsoletus) out of a junkpile:

Elegant earless lizard (Holbrookia elegans):

A closer look:

Canyon treefrog (Hyla arenicolor) calling next to the SWRS pool:

And finally, for those of you still with me, the best find of the whole trip so far, an amelanistic male Plains spadefoot (Spea bombifrons)!