Reptile & Amphibian Forums

sighted while looking for kingsnakes. 14" ish carapace

They're the best. Find any kings?? Should be easy this time of year.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

no, no kings

wow, I thought I was the only person who gets skunked...
Here's one very big Okeechobee king...

and one from last year...

:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

Nice!
Todd Hughes

yeh, I need a floridian to show me the ropes, im not good at southern herping...well... im rusty, not no good... And kingsnakes are a foreign concept to me... im from CT

Mark --

Absolutely awesome snake from last year! (I REALLY like the light yellow ones) I'll post a picture of the one & only light yellow one I've ever found down there (he was big, as well -- right at 5')

I'm also very glad to hear that others get skunked too! Although my best day was 7 (along with another guy who caught 5 more) and my 2nd best day was 6 (extremely cool as they were 3 pairs -- one actually found coupling), that was MANY years ago and, since then, I often hunt/walk all day and only find one (or sometimes none...)

Another very important FYI, I no longer collect Kings to sell (stopped doing that over 10 years ago due to my conscience really bothering me about both depleting the natural population as well as the possible/probable poor life for these incredible creatures once sold "into the trade" -- I now just sincerely enjoy finding these guys and, as a result, have been involved with a Kingsnake survey with the University of Florida the past 3 years.

I did go down there once this year (a couple of weeks ago) and found 3 on the first (very long) canal bank I walked but then didn't see another one for the rest of the day!

The only ones that come home with me are gravid females (I really enjoy hatching eggs and then releasing the youguns') and those that hold promise for a possible "special pet" for me personally (I brought the prettiest one back from my trip two weeks ago and he is currently colied up very contently on my left arm while I tytpe all this with one figer!!! He was very calm right from the very beginning as well as unusually content in his cage so he might "make the cut" and end up in a brand new huge Vision cage come the Daytona retile expo...

I'm going back down tomorrow to see if I have better luck when it is significantly cooler (it was pretty hot on my first trip so there was really only 2-3 good hours early and then maybe 2 at the end of the day -- but then again, I saw nothing after about 11:00 AM)

As another FYI re: the title of this post, gopher tortoises are right there with Florida Kings as my absolute favorite native animals and I currently have a yearling in my care (with permit from the state) that is blind from a brutal fire ant attack when it had just hatched(I named him Samson). He is pretty special -- I had to force-feed him for several months but he finally "figured it out" and, although I have to prepare his food and place him on the food plate, he knows what to do and will stay on the plate (turning in circles) until he has his fill (and then he retires to his hide box -- I know he can see light/dark since he finds the opening so often on his first try). There was a significant "breakthrough" yesterday as, for the first time, I knew for sure that he had returned to the plate during the day while I was at work and eaten a lot more food!

Take care,

Tim
Sarasota

how it got there and it is a little inappropriate in its particular location!

Really enjoy hearing the gopher is doing good.
I may head down very soon. I need pics of other snakes and the cruise back might yield them.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

...status on those? Have you seen any indigos?
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Carl

No, no indigos... would love to see one on this continent