Posted by:
Keith Hillson
at Wed Sep 7 10:43:34 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Keith Hillson ]
Ive seen it mentioned in here that the Outer Banks Kings are a relict population of Floridana. Ive also seen that some breeders have posted pics of Florida X Eastern Kings and noted they look like Outer Banks Kings but this is erroneous. Anybody who has bred or kept Outer Banks Kings knows that they look damn near identical to Eastern Kings (well they are Eastern Kings)as babies. Yes some hatchlings show some speckling but the ones that are showing it well are probably the result of selective breeding. The animals that are Floridana X Eastern as hatchlings look more like adult Outer Banks Kings not juveniles. To compare them to adults is silly since they wont look like Outer Banks Kings for very long once they start getting lighter due to Floridana influence. I think OBK (Outer Banks Kings for short) are simply Eastern Kings stuck on that thin strip of sand and they began apapting to the enviroment at a faster pace probably due to inbreeding. There are folks who frequent this forum who know more about wild Outer Banks Kings than me i.e. Tony Dongarra, Howie Sherman and maybe others. Does anyone else have thoughts on how Outer Banks came to be or how they look they way they look ? Krysko has done DNA analysis and finds that the Kings from the Outer Banks are genetically the same as the mainland Eastern Kings and not the Kings of Florida. This asks the question how long does something need to be seperated before its genetic code looks differnt ? I dont know personally but Im sure someone has an opinion on that.
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Juvenile Outer Banks King
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A typical Outer Banks Kingsnake adult. Photo by Carl Bartlett.
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 Thoughts on Outer Banks Kings and Floridana - Keith Hillson, Wed Sep 7 10:43:34 2005 
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