mbreally: Great Basin National Park

Scorpion under blacklight.

Friday we left Reno about 2:00pm and headed east across the state along
highway 50. Our destination: Great Basin National Park. The drive took 7
long hours, but it was a fun drive as always. The Trooper did well despite
being loaded down with gear for 4 people, 10 gallons of water, and 20
gallons of extra fuel.

Every year, Bryan Hamilton hosts an annual survey for the elusive and
beautiful Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake. In the last few years I've missed
the opportunity to volunteer for one reason or another, but this year I went
and participated.

The following photos are from Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning.

My favorite shot of the beautiful, rugged terrain I spent two long days hiking in.

Another habitat shot.

Fence.

WWI era machinery left out in the elements. This steel rod was about 2.5"s thick. They don't make things
like they used to!

A Nightsnake found by fellow herper, Hal.

A morel I should have picked and eaten had I known what it was when I saw it...

There were many cute doggies around for the trip, including CeCe of course,
who really got a workout over the weekend.

A deer skull Linda and Megan found.

Fence on my arm. I noosed a few of these guys so Bryan could take tail snips for DNA
samples.

Sunday morning we went to Bryan's lab to 'process' the three snakes that were located during the week.
Unfortunately I did not find any snakes myself, but I was very happy to be a part of the survey and see how
things are done. Quite honestly, Bryan has my dream job. 'Processing' includes sexing the snakes,
measuring the snakes, weighing the snakes, PIT tagging (Passive Integrated Transponder) the snakes,
and releasing them back at the site of capture. One lucky kingsnake will get the honor of going under the
knife to have a radio telemetry device implanted into its body cavity.

Snake probe. These tools are used to sex snakes by inserting them into their vent. If penetration occurs
you have a male, no penetration means the snake is a girl. Interestingly, all three snakes found during
the week were males.

The other way of sexing snakes is to 'pop' their hemipenes. This gentle act takes skill to acquire. I personally
would not do this unless I had a valid scientific reason to put the snake under this kind of stress. Either way,
this is what a snake's penis looks like.

After weighing comes measuring. This involves tracing the snake with a marker and then measuring the
line with a string.

As you can see these snakes are strikingly beautiful.

Next up was the injection of the PIT tag. You can see the lump from the tag just under the scales here.
Pit tags are implanted with a rather large syringe. Ouch. Bryan actually gave himself a PIT tag via the same
method so he could get an idea of the pain that goes into getting one. I held one of the snakes for him
while he injected the tag and I can say without a doubt the snake did not like it. A dab of super glue is applied
at the entry site to seal off the wound and hopefully help keep the PIT tag from working its way out.

Snake #2.

A love bite on Bryan's wrist.

Here is the radio transmitter that will be surgically installed into snake #3. Yeah, that huge thing is going
into the snake.

After the snakes were processed we headed out into the field to release two of them. On the way out
we checked a rock where Bryan knew a Great Basin Rattlesnake was hiding out.