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Plains gartersnake

Thamnophis radix · Snakes · Reptiles

Plains gartersnake (Thamnophis radix): Long striped garter snake, usually 40-70 cm (occasionally to 109 cm), dark brown to dark greenish with a dorsal and two lateral yellow or orange stripes. Lateral stripes lie on scale rows 3 and 4; some red pigment may show on the sides. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Thamnophis radix
Family
Colubridae
In North America
Native
Range
Great Plains from the Oklahoma panhandle, northern Texas and northeastern New Mexico north to southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and east through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana.
Biology

How to identify it

Long striped garter snake, usually 40-70 cm (occasionally to 109 cm), dark brown to dark greenish with a dorsal and two lateral yellow or orange stripes. [1][2][3]

Lateral stripes lie on scale rows 3 and 4; some red pigment may show on the sides. [1][2][3]

A row of black spots runs between each lateral stripe and the belly scales. [1][2][3]

Keeled scales in 19-21 rows and an undivided anal plate; males have tubercles on the chin shields and slightly longer tails. [1][2][3]

Compared with the common gartersnake (thamnophis sirtalis): Plains gartersnake's lateral stripe sits on scale rows 3 and 4; the common gartersnake's is on rows 2 and 3. [1][2][3]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a plains gartersnake before you act. Compared with the common gartersnake (thamnophis sirtalis): Plains gartersnake's lateral stripe sits on scale rows 3 and 4; the common gartersnake's is on rows 2 and 3.[1][2][3]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Meadows, prairies and other grasslands near ponds, streams, marshes and sloughs, also swampy areas, rivers and suburban vacant lots; where it overlaps the common gartersnake it uses drier habitat. [1][2][3]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Active March-November depending on region; hibernates in rodent or ant burrows, rock crevices and human-made crevices and may emerge on warm winter days. [1][2][3]

Diurnal at 21-29 C, switching to night activity above 31 C and becoming inactive in much colder weather. [1][2][3]

Follows odour trails to prey, mates and hibernacula; eats frogs, toads, salamanders, fish, earthworms, small rodents and birds. [1][2][3]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Great Plains from the Oklahoma panhandle, northern Texas and northeastern New Mexico north to southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and east through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology

  3. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe