Yesterday my cousin and I were going up a canyon road north of Los Angeles to a small wildlife education center to see their reptiles. On the way up, there sat a park ranger truck and the ranger was watching something alongside the road. Curious, we backed up to see what the commotion was. It was an epic struggle between an adult coastal california kingsnake, and a slightly smaller pacific gopher snake. They had started fighting on the side on the embankment and rolled onto the road in a writhing ball. The kingsnake clearly had the upper hand, as he had the gophersnake gripped by the mouth and had 3 coils tightly squeezing. The ranger even moved them to the side of the road...but that king was not going to be denied his hard earned meal. Unfortunately, neither the ranger or we had a camera to capture the action. What a bummer!
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Once in a lifetime event!
Replies (4)
ha ha nice! that would be a sight to see
Wow! That must've been awesome to see. Was the place you were going called "The Wildlife Waystation"? What time of day was it when you saw it. This spring I've already found a couple of Cal Kings, 3 Striped Racers and a Southern Pacific Rattler while field herping, but no action like that!
reako45
I see you are familiar with the location. It was just down from the main entry about 100 yards. It was clear and sunny out...about 4:00pm. It was totally wild...I usually carry a camera, but I forgot this day. My cousin had real success last week when he found an incredible Newport-Long Beach aberrant king in the OC. Unbelivable color and pattern...just a baby.
That's awesome! I've never herped the O.C. before, even though I spent forever down there going to school @ UC Irvine. It's funny, but my wife is from Canada and all her family moved down to Tustin. On the way to the beach they were showing me some of the herping hotspots. I can imagine being closer to the beach it stays pretty temperate down there. I'm in the San Fernando Valley and it turns into one of the levels of hell here in the summer.
reako45
