A study on extreme colour morph variation in garter snake populations in northern Manitoba and Isle Royale, Michigan, has just been published in Copeia. The study found extreme red-colour variations in three of eight populations studied, plus melanistic snakes in several of the populations, and suggested that because of this variability of colour, “subspecies of T. sirtalis based on color are of questionable validity.” Which I take to mean that if red populations show up here and there all over the place, then relative reddishness is not grounds for declaring a local population a distinct subspecies. Whether this will have implications for western subspecies such as the Red-spotted (concinnus), California Red-sided (infernalis), Valley (fitchi) and even San Francisco (tetrataenia) remains to be seen, but that’s what I infer from that statement.

The Winnipeg Free Press reports on the study in lay terms.

[Biologist Butch] Brodie’s son, Edmund, grew up catching newts, and today he’s a biologist at the University of Virginia. Father and son and colleagues have discovered that snakes have independently evolved the same mutations to their receptors in some populations, while evolving other mutations with the same effect in other populations. They’ve also found that both newts and snakes pay a cost for their weaponry. The newts put in a lot of energy into making TTX that could be directed to growing and making baby newts. The evolved receptors in garter snakes don’t just protect them from TTX; they also leave the snakes slower than vulnerable snakes. They’ve studied newts and snakes up and down the west coast of North America and found a huge range of TTX potency and resistance. That’s what you’d expect from a coevolutionary process in which local populations are adapting to each other in different environments, with different costs and benefits to escalating the fight.

Previously: Three Evolutionary Routes to Newt Toxin Immunity; Garter Snakes Win Arms Race with Newts.

Update: More coverage from Reuters, Gawker, the Daily Mail and many, many other places.

I’m still waiting for photos — or any word, actually — from the Narcisse Snake Dens in Manitoba. Henk von Pickartz paid the dens a visit last weekend, and took lots of photos, but reports that the snakes have yet to come out in great numbers.

I’d given some thought to working on all of them behind the scenes and launching them all at once, but now I think that would delay things too much. Better to share with you what I have, as soon as it’s ready.

So I can announce that new species pages are now live for nine species (out of 34): the Bogert’s, Short-headed, Golden-headed, Conant’s, Mexican Wandering, Exiled, Godman’s, Liner’s, and Rossman’s Garter Snakes. More are at least partially finished and should be ready soon. I’ll announce them when they go live.

There will be some broken links here and there, and the new state/province search page is pretty rudimentary at the moment, so we’re a long way from finished. But I think you’ll agree that what has been done so far is already an improvement.

(Photo of a Short-headed Garter Snake by Jennifer Schlick, who was kind enough to let me use it on its species page.)