Bill
08-12-2004, 11:30 AM
NEWS RELEASE
The Center for North American Herpetology
Lawrence, Kansas
http://www.cnah.org
12 August 2004
NEW RECORD LENGTH PRAIRIE RATTLESNAKE FOUND
A new record length Prairie Rattlesnake was found by Dick Grusing last April
about 3 miles north of Kendall in western Kansas. The snake had been killed and
frozen, and was recently acquired and its length confirmed by Travis Taggart,
associate curator of herpetology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History,
Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas. The snake was discovered in a prairie
dog town near Kendall in Hamilton County near the Colorado border in far
western Kansas. It has been preserved and cataloged (MHP 8564) in the
Sternberg Museum of Natural History herpetological collection. The reptile's
length was confirmed by Taggart at 57 1/8 inches, exceeding the previous
Kansas record of 48 3/8 inches taken in 1926, and also surpassing the national
record of 57 inches as reported in the third edition (1998) of the "Peterson Field
Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America."
A note on this specimen will be published in the December 2004 issue
(Number12) of the Journal of Kansas Herpetology.
The Center for North American Herpetology
Lawrence, Kansas
http://www.cnah.org
12 August 2004
NEW RECORD LENGTH PRAIRIE RATTLESNAKE FOUND
A new record length Prairie Rattlesnake was found by Dick Grusing last April
about 3 miles north of Kendall in western Kansas. The snake had been killed and
frozen, and was recently acquired and its length confirmed by Travis Taggart,
associate curator of herpetology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History,
Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas. The snake was discovered in a prairie
dog town near Kendall in Hamilton County near the Colorado border in far
western Kansas. It has been preserved and cataloged (MHP 8564) in the
Sternberg Museum of Natural History herpetological collection. The reptile's
length was confirmed by Taggart at 57 1/8 inches, exceeding the previous
Kansas record of 48 3/8 inches taken in 1926, and also surpassing the national
record of 57 inches as reported in the third edition (1998) of the "Peterson Field
Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America."
A note on this specimen will be published in the December 2004 issue
(Number12) of the Journal of Kansas Herpetology.