Animal · United States, Canada, Mexico
Common garter snake
Thamnophis sirtalis — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The common garter snake is a slim striped snake of North American gardens and meadows, and it is the snake people there see most often. It is harmless to humans.
Picture credit: Greg Schechter (CC BY 2.0) · Riley Stanton (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the common garter snake live?
Home: Gardens, meadows and pond edges of North America.
In the wild it lives in these countries: the United States, Canada, Mexico.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown: usually about 55 cm long, rarely up to 130 cm. It weighs about 0.15 kilograms. On the menu: meat.
The story behind it
Garter snakes get their name from the long stripes down their back, which look like the bands once used to hold up stockings. They hunt in daylight near water and eat earthworms, frogs, slugs, fish and mice, swallowing them whole. Their saliva is slightly toxic, enough to slow down a worm but not enough to hurt a person, and a frightened snake would rather smear a smelly liquid on your hands than bite. In some places they eat rough-skinned newts, which are so poisonous that only snakes with a special resistance survive the meal. Winter is spent underground, often in huge groups: at Narcisse in Canada, tens of thousands crowd into the same limestone dens and pour out together in spring. Females do not lay eggs but give birth to a dozen or more living young.
Find it on the globe
Common garter snake is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Is a garter snake dangerous?
No. Its saliva is mildly toxic for worms and frogs, but a bite rarely breaks human skin and causes at most a little itching. A garter snake usually flees or releases a bad smell instead of biting.
What does a garter snake eat?
Small animals it can swallow whole: earthworms, frogs and tadpoles, slugs, small fish and sometimes mice. It hunts by day, mostly near ponds, ditches and damp grass.
Where do garter snakes go in winter?
They sleep underground in rock cracks, burrows and cellars, often many snakes together to stay warm. At Narcisse in Canada tens of thousands share the same dens and come out at the same time in spring.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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