Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Will and myself took a three day road trip here in Kentucky, met with some friends and found a lot of interesting herps. Some of my favorites of course were the kingsnakes. In all, Will and I discovered 11. This one a typical western Ky nigra.

One of our goals was to track down Ky specimens of nigra x holbrooki. Here these snakes have a very limited range in the Mississippi valley region of our state and can be fairly ellusive based upon the scarcity of records. With some trial and error we succeeded in finding them.

Some other snakes seen included cottonmouth, copperheads, rat snakes, diamondback waters, broad-banded waters, western ribbons, racers, worm snakes and ringneck snakes.

Spring is good Phil

More pics of the nigra-specks, please! You guys are having some great successes up north and east. Too dry down here, pray for rain!
Todd Hughes

Todd, this is the only other pic I have, and this one of the same snake. The others found were a yearling in which the pattern had not developed yet, and a large very rough looking male with a severe injury that I did not bother to photograph.

I hope to see more of these snakes on our next trip to that area though. One problem is there is very little prime kingsnake habitat within this small area. Most of it is either too thickly wooded to be good for kings or is intensively cultivated for agriculture. We have a few things we set up though so hopefully these will produce.

Hope you guys get some rain. I know how frustrating that can be. Last summers drought we had here made things very rough for us. Phil

Thanks, Phil, and that is a sharp looking snake IMHO! I like the way a snake looks au naturale! Even the intergrades are very interesting.
Todd Hughes