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Sierra gartersnake

Thamnophis couchii · Snakes · Reptiles

Sierra gartersnake (Thamnophis couchii): Medium-sized, slender, highly aquatic garter snake with a somewhat pointed head. Found in or right beside water, basking in streamside vegetation and fleeing into water when disturbed. 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 couchii
Family
Colubridae
In North America
Native
Range
Sierra Nevada of California from the Pit and Sacramento rivers south to the Tehachapi Mountains, east along major rivers to the Owens Valley and west-central Nevada, about 90-2,440 m. Not in Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Medium-sized, slender, highly aquatic garter snake with a somewhat pointed head. [1][2][3]

Found in or right beside water, basking in streamside vegetation and fleeing into water when disturbed. [1][2][3]

Compared with the aquatic gartersnake (thamnophis atratus): Distinguished mainly by range; aquatic gartersnake occupies the Coast Ranges west of the Central Valley. [1][2][3]

Compared with the terrestrial gartersnake (thamnophis elegans): Sierra gartersnake is much more tightly tied to water; terrestrial gartersnake also ranges into drier habitats. [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 sierra gartersnake before you act. Compared with the aquatic gartersnake (thamnophis atratus): Distinguished mainly by range; aquatic gartersnake occupies the Coast Ranges west of the Central Valley.[1][2][3]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Pools of permanent or seasonal streams (often rocky), meadow ponds, lakes, reservoirs and riparian zones, in oak woodland, chaparral, montane conifer forest, or pine-juniper-sagebrush east of the Sierra crest. [1][2][3]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Active diurnal snake: low-elevation animals can be active about 10 months a year, high-elevation ones less than 4 months. [1][2][3]

Forages in and along water: larval and newly transformed amphibians in ephemeral water; fish (trout, Sacramento suckers, mosquitofish) in permanent streams. [1][2][3]

Retreats at night to holes, crevices and surface objects and rapidly to water when disturbed; young are born July-September in secluded sites such as under bark. [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

Sierra Nevada of California from the Pit and Sacramento rivers south to the Tehachapi Mountains, east along major rivers to the Owens Valley and west-central Nevada, about 90-2,440 m. Not in Canada.

Biology

Sources

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

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. California Department of Fish and Wildlife · reviewed 2026-09-30

    California Department of Fish and Wildlife

  3. Wikipedia · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Wikipedia