I’m doing research on my Nelson’s milk home range. Edward W. Nelson, the namesake for this species, did field studies and collected specimens in ether jars for the U.S. Biological Survey department in the 1890s. Official records cite the these collection sites:

Acámbaro, Guanajuato, Mexico 1,880 meters / 6,170 feet
Colima, Colima, Mexico 550 meters / 1,504 feet
Neshpa River, Michoacán, Mexico 1,931 meters / 6,302 feet (Morelia region)
Isla Maria Madre, Nayarit, Mexico 616 meters / 2,021 feet (highest point)
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico 1,586 meters / 5,138 feet

Note that higher elevations of the Sierra Madre mountains get down to the 40s in at least 4 cooler months. Some locations freeze at times. So much for the “don’t let night time temperatures fall below 70 degrees” mentality so often quoted across most Internet care sheet sources! (Chortle!)

Years later, snakes were first collected and bred for the pet trade. With some species, this has been done mostly since the 1980s. Most reptiles species in the pet trade are bred from wild-caught stock from only a few locations, without diversity of total home range. (Some species represent animals from only a handful of gene pool sources, omitting a wide variety of specimens with different colors or patterns from many other locales.)

Do any breeders or experienced forum members know of any locations where Nelson’s Milk snakes were originally caught? Know of any breeders who know where their wild-caught stock came from?

Ameron
Portland/Vancouver

1.0 Boa constrictor imperator (Hog Island)
1.0 Lampropeltis triangulum nelsoni
1.0 Agrionemys horsfieldii kazakhstanica

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