I spend most of the year in the field with zonata being one of the most often snakes I seek to observe. They are my favorite herp and always have been. I've found somewhere around 1400 of them in the past 25 years in the wild throughout their range, except Ore and WA. I've have found the disease in the wild in two different mountain ranges in So. Cal. Two were found the same day on Mount Palomar in separate rock outcroppings. The other was 3 specimens the same day in the San Bernardino Mountains in the same rock outcropping. I found a very young adult that had the severe bad skin and nerve problems. under the rock next to were that snake was found was a very large adult pair. Both of those snakes were in the same bad shape. None of the 3 snakes could crawl without going in to violent shakes. I have been to both mountain ranges several times since then and have found perfectly fine animals in the same rock piles.

There's more questions than answers when it comes to "Mountain King Disease'. My intent is to share my experiences and not influence Stu or anyone else what to do with their animals or how to handle their problems. Unfortunately, anyone working with zonata will most likely have the problem hit eventually. It's a risk we take working with them. It's up to whomever to do what they want if their zonata were succumb to this awful and painful event. Hope this brings a little more light to the table.

PL

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