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Posted by Brendan on September 13, 2002 at 13:39:02:
In Reply to: Spigers and Teckles oh my, and thanks to Brendan and Trey posted by lateralis on September 13, 2002 at 12:32:14:
...and just some personal observations for you.
It has been my experience that even where tigris and mitchelli ranges overlap, they are still extreemly distinct. I have never observed "speckling" in a tiger. By this I am referring to the black "pepper" looking scales interspersed amoung the ground color of a mitchelli. I have seen many specks that lack this though and that may be where one might confuse the two.
Generally tigis will exhibit semi-uniform "tiger-like" stripes which tend to bunch together (increase in number) towards the caudal (tail) end of the animal. They also lack the "coon-tail" (black and white banding) appearence commonly found in mitchelli. This is a pretty good "dead give away."
Head size and rattle size are probably not the best way to compare these two species, especially in young animals like the one you found.
Also, specks seem to be pretty good at matching the color of the rocks within their home range, where tigers are generally varying shades of more "earthy" colors such as shades of grey. Of course there are places where they can also have nice bright highlights of orange, pink, blue, yellow, etc.
These are just personal observations with no scientific claims of validity. I am a reptile hobbiest, not a biologist, geneticist or any other type of ophidian guru for those who "know it all" and need disclaimers in every post. Hope these observations help.
