#How do you identify herps?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

shy palm
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playing GTH is fun but I'm curious what the other guessers use to identify the herps, as well as other individuals. Seeing what other resources there are.

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when herping i usually carry a wildlife pamphlet with the most common herps in my area, then with a few pictures that i take i either google local herps if i still can't find it then I use Inaturalist.org

young marsh
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I use books mostly. Books, scale maps and in the field i use my knowledge of the areas snakes. I sometimes also use inat.

hazy falcon
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For guess the herp I go based on if I recognize any of the animal's features as being specific to a certain location, otherwise if im just doing a identification i use a combination of cross referencing location with a google lens, if google lens fails me i go purely on location and its look

analog oracle
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First thing I do is look at the specimen to try to narrow down the search as much as possible. What I mean by this is not only "is it a snake or a lizzard", I try at least to hit the right family.
After that I look at the background for any indication of where the species lives.
And after that, books and the Reptile Database

young marsh
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Not me forgetting to mention half the steps

analog oracle
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Things I pay attention to for snakes (which is my specialty) : general condition of the body, length of the tail, shape of the head, eyes but also its general posture (how it holds itself, how it seems to behave, what are his defense mechanism etc)

young marsh
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I try to hit genus level, instead of family though

analog oracle
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for lizzards honestly, I'm not good enough to identify lesser known species. If I have the genus right I'm happy ^^

young marsh
young marsh
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I’ll get to genus level, and then from there work out the differences in all the species

analog oracle
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Honestly, when I hit the right species, most times I know right away because when I google search them for more pictures the pictures you use show up
However sometimes they are not IDed correctly ^^ if the picture is good enough head scales count is the way to tell most snakes apart for sure

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(which is why I may have cursed you a few times when the head is not visible enough or you put the trademark right on it ^^)

young marsh
analog oracle
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(forgot to mention scales also in the things I pay attention to)

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I don't show that often but here is my book collection. First row is field guides, second care guides. Some are better than others but all can be useful. As a rule I try to buy at least one book every 3 months, and I've been doing that for years. The first advice I give to any reptile keeper is to find a book about them, and if you want just one a field guide

IMG_20220914_141024.jpg
young marsh
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Bottom two are my collection, with some spillover from the middle shelf

85DCC9FF-EFCD-4ACC-BAAF-D3EEAAC21CA8.jpg
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And also me sometimes being lazy and putting the wrong books in the wrong shelf

analog oracle
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well, I still have a few "must have" on a list somewhere, waiting for the right opportunities (specialised books can be very expensive sometimes)

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Also, I have a collection of scientific articles, mainly from ResearchGate (which is a kind of Google for that) or universities or herp societies

young marsh
analog oracle
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bonus is by doing this you learn A LOT about the species you keep (even if it's "just" cornsnakes) and you can really improve the way you care for them instead of blindly following a care guide that is most times not that accurate

young marsh
analog oracle
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Right now a Russian ratsnake and a BP. I have 3 snakes due to arrive in a month, another Russian and a pair of bamboo ratsnakes.
However I've kept snakes in the past, literaly the first thing I bought after I finally moved from my parents' was my first terrarium. I unfortunately had to stop for a while (because of my health). In the past I have kept cornsnakes, plains ratsnakes (Pantherophis emoryi), radiated ratsnakes (which is my absolute favourite snake), rhino ratsnakes, horseshoe ratsnake, Spalerosophis diadema atriceps (don't know the common name to that one), Western hognose. And I've trained mainly with blue beauties, BIs and carpet pythons

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I'm specialised in Colubrids, BP is an anomaly 😅 this one convinced me to take her home, and well she's very good at convincing people she's harmless, which is great. I'm applying for a permit so that I can do educational programs, without bringing the animals (because, well, French laws...)

young marsh
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Sounds amazing!

young marsh
analog oracle
# young marsh I haven’t worked with many colubrids before, I personally specialise in elapids

there are some amazing species out there ^^ Well I think you won't be surprised, here elapids are all banned. You can apply for a permit for them and you have to train with someone who have the permit for the species you ask.
What may surprise you more, when I came back I learned that hognose were banned also since 2008 and now require the same permit. As I have kept a pair before, I'm still asking for them but this THE species I'm about certain they will refuse (they can edit your list and give the permit only for part of it)

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it seems crazy to me because flying snakes or even Thrasops ssp for instance are still completely legal-no-questions-asked here

mint sapphire
hazy falcon
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Even when I do use the google lens I'll comb through the species that live at the location just to make sure and see if theres anything i think fits better

shy palm
analog oracle
shy palm
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See if they have material request forms or inter-library loans I work at a library and those two things I believe are universal terms, libraries like to add books in different languages to add diversity