The state of Wisconsin is home to thirty-six species of reptiles. These include snakes, lizards, and turtles. [1]
Twenty-one species of snake live in Wisconsin.
Common name | Scientific name | IUCN status | Wisconsin status | Picture |
---|---|---|---|---|
Butler's garter snake | Thamnophis butleri | Least concern | Special concern | |
Common garter snake | Thamnophis sirtalis | Least concern | Common | |
Common watersnake | Nerodia sipedon | Least concern | Common | |
DeKay's brown snake | Storeria dekayi | Least concern | Common | |
Eastern foxsnake | Pantherophis vulpinus | Least concern | Common | |
Eastern hognose snake | Heterodon platirhinos | Least concern | Common | |
Eastern massasauga | Sistrurus catenatus | Least concern | Endangered | |
Eastern racer | Coluber constrictor | Least concern | Special concern | |
Eastern ribbon snake | Thamnophis saurita | Least concern | Endangered | |
Gophersnake | Pituophis catenifer | Least concern | Special concern | |
Gray ratsnake | Pantherophis spiloides | Least concern | Special concern | |
Lined snake | Tropidoclonion lineatum | Least concern | Special concern | |
Milk snake | Lampropeltis triangulum | Least concern | Common | |
Plains garter snake | Thamnophis radix | Least concern | Special concern | |
Queen snake | Regina septemvittata | Least concern | Endangered | |
Red-bellied snake | Storeria occipitomaculata | Least concern | Common | |
Ring-necked snake | Diadophis punctatus | Least concern | Common (northern) Special concern (prairie) | |
Smooth green snake | Opheodrys vernalis | Least concern | Common | |
Timber rattlesnake | Crotalus horridus | Least concern | Special concern | |
Western ribbon snake | Thamnophis proximus | Least concern | Endangered | |
Western worm snake | Carphophis vermis | Least concern | Special concern |
Four species of lizard live in Wisconsin.
Common name | Scientific name | IUCN status | Wisconsin status | Picture |
---|---|---|---|---|
Common five-lined skink | Plestiodon fasciatus | Least concern | Common | |
Prairie skink | Plestiodon septentrionalis | Least concern | Special concern | |
Six-lined racerunner | Aspidoscelis sexlineatus | Least concern | Special concern | |
Slender glass lizard | Ophisaurus attenuatus | Least concern | Endangered |
Eleven species of turtle live in Wisconsin.
Common name | Scientific name | IUCN status | Wisconsin status | Picture |
---|---|---|---|---|
Blanding's turtle | Emydoidea blandingii | Endangered | Special concern | |
Common snapping turtle | Chelydra serpentina | Least concern | Common | |
Eastern musk turtle | Sternotherus odoratus | Least concern | Common | |
False map turtle | Graptemys pseudogeographica | Least concern | Common | |
Northern map turtle | Graptemys geographica | Least concern | Common | |
Ornate box turtle | Terrapene ornata | Vulnerable | Endangered | |
Ouachita map turtle | Graptemys ouachitensis | Least concern | Common | |
Painted turtle | Chrysemys picta | Least concern | Common | |
Smooth softshell turtle | Apalone mutica | Least concern | Special concern | |
Spiny softshell turtle | Apalone spinifera | Least concern | Common | |
Wood turtle | Glyptemys insculpta | Endangered | Threatened |
Reptiles, as most commonly defined, are the animals in the class Reptilia, a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates and rhynchocephalians (tuatara). As of March 2022, the Reptile Database includes about 11,700 species. In the traditional Linnaean classification system, birds are considered a separate class to reptiles. However, crocodilians are more closely related to birds than they are to other living reptiles, and so modern cladistic classification systems include birds within Reptilia, redefining the term as a clade. Other cladistic definitions abandon the term reptile altogether in favor of the clade Sauropsida, which refers to all amniotes more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals. The study of the traditional reptile orders, customarily in combination with the study of modern amphibians, is called herpetology.
The Lepidosauria is a subclass or superorder of reptiles, containing the orders Squamata and Rhynchocephalia. Squamata includes snakes, lizards, and amphisbaenians. Squamata contains over 9,000 species, making it by far the most species-rich and diverse order of reptiles in the present day. Rhynchocephalia was a formerly widespread and diverse group of reptiles in the Mesozoic Era. However, it is represented by only one living species: the tuatara, a superficially lizard-like reptile native to New Zealand.
Marine reptiles are reptiles which have become secondarily adapted for an aquatic or semiaquatic life in a marine environment.
Live food is living animals used as food for other carnivorous or omnivorous animals kept in captivity; in other words, small preys fed alive to larger predators kept either in a zoo or as a pet.
The fauna of the United States of America is all the animals living in the Continental United States and its surrounding seas and islands, the Hawaiian Archipelago, Alaska in the Arctic, and several island-territories in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. The U.S. has many endemic species found nowhere else on Earth. With most of the North American continent, the U.S. lies in the Nearctic, Neotropic, and Oceanic faunistic realms, and shares a great deal of its flora and fauna with the rest of the American supercontinent.