I live here in Yuma and have found out herping the different types of California (Yuma)kings here. Some look like the desert kings with the thin bands over the back the gradually get bigger towards the belly. Others have little or no white bands, but the bands can be found on the belly.

My theory is that this is just how the California Kingsnake evolved in this area, due to the openess of the desert and lack of cover (including hardly any biodiversity of plant and animal life) ,the calkings here are the ones that survived predators and evolved with little or almost no white bands, except for on the belly.

I don't really know, I've also heard alot of hearsay about the Yuma kingsnake in this area like;
The Yuma kingsnake is actually an intergrade and not a true calking and 50 years ago the species was released into the wild by some crazy collectors like FR, just kidding FR.

Here's a pic of a LTC 5-6ft Yuma King eating an unlucky sidewinder that was found in my garage. This large Yuma king ended up with someone I don't know, but was very mellow. I have 2 friends that have baby WC Yuma Kings from a couple of years ago, but I don't have pictures of them. And they look the same almost completely black.

[ Show Entire Thread ]