I recently went on an excursion to the sandhills region of northwest Nebraska and southwest South Dakota on a quest to find the elusive and highly fossorial Pale Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum multistrata). I first learned of Pales through an article written by Walter Deptula in the October of 1996 (I believe) issue of Reptiles Magizine. In short, the article demonstrates the extreme difficulty one can experience while searching for multistrata. Pale Milk Snakes are similar to the Central Plains Milk Snakes in appearence, but have a much higher amount of white and fewer triads than gentilis. Pales are native to western Nebraska, adjacent South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana and they also intergrade with gentilis in northwest Kansas and adjacent Colorado. Pales intergrade with syspila in eastern Nebraska, but very little is known about Milk Snakes in this area. This is one of the least-known forms of Kingsnake in North America.

I first went on a quest after mulstistrata during June of 2001. Three Pales were seen, 2 in Nebraska and 1 in SD, and all were juveniles and beautiful. Here is a picture of the last Pale found on the trip:

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And here is my first Pale ever:

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I had the itch to get back this year, so I called up my friend Jordan who is an Arachnology student at KU. We decided to head out Friday morning and stay the whole weekend through Monday in search of multistrata. We arrived in the late evening of Friday night and road cruised to no avail. This was the first indicator of the lack of snakes we were to see on this trip.

We camped out the whole weekend and awoke Saturday at dawn to begin our field search. We hunted many known areas for Pales, but were skunked. Throughout the whole weekend we saw TMTC Bullsnakes, some AOR and others DOR. We were also seeing Plains Garter Snakes and Racers as well as Prairie Rattlesnakes AOR throughout the days.

We hunted through the afternoon and never saw a Pale, so we went into SD to look. Once again we were skunked. I remembered back to 2001 and thought about how difficult it was then to find them, but we still found them. It seemed impossible now. Pale hunting is very difficult no matter what the turn out is. It is hard to walk the hills for Pales when they are covered in loose sand and are so steep that you have to crawl up them, all the while flipping rocks that are pretty much just conglomorations of sand.

Along the way, we found two snakes that were great specimens. One was an Eastern Hognose that was clipped by a car. It was AOR when we found it, but died later. This is an extremely rare snake that few people have ever seen in western Nebraska. The other snake is a rather large range extension, the Western Ribbon Snake. They have never been found north of Omaha, but we found one that was AOR and at the far western edge of the state. We didn't get any pics of the snake, nor did we collect it, under the assumption that it was common. BUMMER! But we notified a herpetologist in the state and he will be seeking out a voucher specimen.

Here are a few snakes (plus a box turtle) that we saw Saturday:

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Gross...(I know)...

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Some habitat shots...

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Here is an interesting critter I found while roaming those sand hills...Cool!

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After a day of miserable herping, we returned to the campsite to throw back a few Fat Tires and grill some chicken. The moon was out in force Saturday night and it was a bit early for Pales to be moving, so we stayed in that night. It had snowed the weekend before and the night temps then were freezing. This must have had an effect on the dispersal of the Pales, but obviously had little effect on the more hardy species. I figured that the lack of Pales was due to the early time of year. The Pales were most likely active, but still remaining under the safe cover of the larger ignious boulders or the rodent burrows. Our challenge now was to search out places that Pales would use early in the year.

Sunday morning we woke up at dawn once again and decided to break down camp and relocate further to the southwest. We left our spot early and drove 95 miles SW to a new area that had no rocks, but lots of Ponderosa Pine logs. Upon arrival, we rolled log after log. The temps were way too high by now, sitting uncomfortably at 90 degrees with full sun exposure. We were miserable. We were sweaty, hot, covered from head to toe in silt, and we had both sustained considerably uncomfortable injuries the day before. I had a boulder that rolled over my foot and caused great pain that is still effecting me as I write this post. We were bummed. No Pales this trip...Or so we thought.

We have all heard the story before..."We were beaten down and finally gave up...but under that one last stone...", or in this case, that one last log. On the way back to the car, I mustered up the engergy to roll one last log.

It was a beautiful half-sunken and rotten log that was approx. 30 feet long and about 1 foot wide. I rolled it back and it broke in half. My end was rolled away and I was sifting through the wood chips, but I was disapointed when I found nothing. I then examined the underside of the log and I just happend to glance over to where the log had broken when I saw it...A white tail hanging out of the log! It was tunnel vision, adrenaline, a shot of expresso...Whatever cliches you can think of, it was all of them!

I knew at that point that my quest was a success and I grinned, but as I pulled the snake out I realized something...Not only was it a Pale, but it was an incredible looking 18 inch adult female! Adult Pales are VERY hard to come by! So our trip was over at that point. I would have kept rolling logs, but I truly belive that at that point, we had rolled every log in the area.

I hate to say this...But the pictures DO NOT do this snake justice! I will be taking some better pics soon that will demonstrate the extreme beauty of this snake...

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An extremely happy camper:

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And here is Jordan, living it up in some of the most beautiful and cleanest countryside I have ever herped:

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We then made the 10 hour drive back to KC with a "perma-grin" firmly implanted on each of our faces. Jordan did not even care to find a Pale at the start of the trip, but after seeking out this "holy grail" (at least during our trip) of a snake, he shared just as much joy as I did when we finally found it.

It was a successful trip with one large range extension and the hognose made a great specimen. Just a note...It is illegal to pursue Pale Milk Snakes throughout their range due to their high demand in the pet trade. We were covered under a scientific collecting permit.

I hope that you all enjoyed!

chad