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Couple of Wild Ones...

tyflier

tyflier

[Insert Witty Commentary]
I went out last night for a short snake cruise, hoping to scare up some Sidewinders and Panamints, but alas, the rattlers didn’t want to come out and play with me. I did find a couple of other snakes, though…

king1.jpg

California King

This king was absolutely gorgeous! He was about 4-4 1/2 feet in length, very healthy and crisply colored with jet black and pure white bands. This is a true “Desert Phase” California Kingsnake. Quintessential in color, size, and attitude, but he did settle down and stop trying to bite for long enough to get a few pictures…

Further down the road I found this guy…
gopher2.jpg


I have found and played with a ton of Great Basin Gophersnakes over the years. This species is always fun to find, because you never know what kind of attitude they are going to have. Some are incredibly calm, content to be picked up, held, and moved out of the road, and others…well…not so much. This was one of the most defensive Gophersnakes I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering. He was medium size, about 3 1/2 feet in length, but he was absolutely FULL of piss and hatred for me. He was easily one of the loudest hissers I’ve ever encountered, and he struck at me more times than I could possibly count. Not little strikes…2/3 body length, almost aerial, lunges towards me, the flashlight, the camera…anything that moved in front of him. Of course, he was determined to convince me that he was gonna kill me, but that’s what I like to see. If a snake is that angry at me, it means he will treat every other human he encounters the same way. When this dude reaches 6 feet or more in length, he will be one helluva snake to deal with. Hopefully, I will get the opportunity to meet him at that point. Think he’ll remember me?

Here’s another shot of the same Gophersnake. Notice the similarity of pose and attitude? He didn’t stop for a second…
gopher1.jpg


Even after picking him up, moving him across the road in his intended direction of travel, and calmly setting him down inches from the cover of sagebrush, he had his sights on me. What a great little snake!

Thanks for taking the time to look!
 
Great photos, and AWESOME finds. If you would have posted "Reptile show pickup" on that California King Snake, I would have thought "Nice find!!!", but to think that you found such a perfect snake in the wild... so cool.
 
More great pics, Chris! LOVE the Gopher, though. AMAZING! So you moved him... did he actually bite or where they simply strikes that never hit?

As for the king... GREAT looking guy! I'm pretty amazed that you said that he had to "calm down"... the ones here are probably the friendliest snakes in the world... I've never had a WC king even attempt to strike/bite me.

Thanks for sharing!
 
The_Thunderer said:
More great pics, Chris! LOVE the Gopher, though. AMAZING! So you moved him... did he actually bite or where they simply strikes that never hit?

As for the king... GREAT looking guy! I'm pretty amazed that you said that he had to "calm down"... the ones here are probably the friendliest snakes in the world... I've never had a WC king even attempt to strike/bite me.

Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...

I don't let them bite me. I treat every snake as a "hot" for a few reasons. Primarily, I don't enjoy being bitten. It happens, I can deal with it, and I certainly don't let it slow me down...but I don't like it.

Secondly because you never know what wild snakes have been eating/drinking/crawling through, and I don;t always have sanitizer in the car. Roadkill, stagnant water, and potentially feces are regular encounters for most wild snakes which means infection is a highly probable result of a bite from even a harmless hatchling.

Thirdly, biting me could potentially result in a loss or breakage of a tooth or teeth for these snakes. In captivity, I feed f/t, and their environments are clean. In the wild, they have to hold on to their prey long enough to kill it, and as I said above, their environment contains bacteria and pathogens. Losing their teeth on me could expose them to the same types of infections that it exposes me to, so I try to avoid it.

The kings around here can be feisty. They don't often bite, but every once in a while you get one that is a little overly defensive. I don't mind one bit, though. I know that if a snake is very defensive with me, it's not personal, and they are just as defensive with any other humans they may encounter. This is usually enough to deter most casual observers or irresponsible kids from collecting them to keep, or just messing with them, so I actually prefer feisty, defensive, bitey snakes. I know they will be just fine after I let them go...

Thanks, everyone, for looking and taking the time to comment!
 
Great pics, Chris! That King is especially awesome! Love the 'tude on the gophers. :)
Thanks again for sharing!! It's always great to see your pics!
 
tyflier said:
I don't let them bite me. I treat every snake as a "hot" for a few reasons. Primarily, I don't enjoy being bitten. It happens, I can deal with it, and I certainly don't let it slow me down...but I don't like it.

Secondly because you never know what wild snakes have been eating/drinking/crawling through, and I don;t always have sanitizer in the car. Roadkill, stagnant water, and potentially feces are regular encounters for most wild snakes which means infection is a highly probable result of a bite from even a harmless hatchling.

Thirdly, biting me could potentially result in a loss or breakage of a tooth or teeth for these snakes. In captivity, I feed f/t, and their environments are clean. In the wild, they have to hold on to their prey long enough to kill it, and as I said above, their environment contains bacteria and pathogens. Losing their teeth on me could expose them to the same types of infections that it exposes me to, so I try to avoid it.

The kings around here can be feisty. They don't often bite, but every once in a while you get one that is a little overly defensive. I don't mind one bit, though. I know that if a snake is very defensive with me, it's not personal, and they are just as defensive with any other humans they may encounter. This is usually enough to deter most casual observers or irresponsible kids from collecting them to keep, or just messing with them, so I actually prefer feisty, defensive, bitey snakes. I know they will be just fine after I let them go...

Thanks, everyone, for looking and taking the time to comment!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation, Chris! Very kewl.
 
I would be so happy to ever see a Cali king in the wild!!! I think I'd feel like I do when I find a cornsnake- it seems like a "pet" out where it doesn't belong.
 
I love the looks of the kingsnake. He's just classically beautiful! And the gophersnake and his attitude make for some very interesting photos! You better hope he doesn't remember you when he's 6' long--he'll take you down, along with your camera and car, I'm thinkin' :).
 
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