Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Made a trip to Southern California for about 10 days and managed to cover a lot of ground and add a bunch of lifers to my list. Here is a short list of what I saw...

7 San Diego Gopher Snakes
3 California Kingsnakes (1 abberrant)
1 Mountain Kingsnake
2 Striped Racers
1 Southern Pacific Rattlesnake
1 Mojave Rattlesnake

Also saw 1 DOR Red Coachwhip, and 1 DOR black & white phase Longnose snake.

I also saw numerous fence lizards, whiptails, alligator lizards, 3 chuckwallas, California newts, side-blotched lizards, and spiny lizards.

Does anyone know what the subspecies is for the zonata that are found in the Santa Monica Mountains (the one pictured below)? Are they Coastal Mountain Kings (L. zonata multifasciata) or San Diego Mountain Kings (L. zonata pulchra)? I have found websites that say they are pulchra but my field guide says multifasciata. Any thoughts?

Here are a few pictures...

Here is the abberrant king, the helleri, and a gopher...

Did you flip the Zonata or did you find him walking? Just wondering if it was out in the open or in cover?

The zonata was found out on the crawl about mid-morning.

Nice pics of a nice trip! You did well! Congrats on the lifers.
Todd Hughes

np

Nice find on the aberrant. Where abouts did you find it? Los Angeles County is big. I don't need exact location but I am doing a study. Here's a picture of my aberrant found in Palos Verdes.

That is awesome - I've found 100 snakes in PV and never anything like that! My wife's going to hate you for revitalizing my addiction. I usually hike down to the ocean starting at Del Cerro...Do I have a chance??? Was that found recently?

WHAT A COOL LOOKING SNAKE!!!

Thanks for posting that,
Jake

Man, all those years I lived in Torrance and Redondo Beach and I didn't even know what was right under my nose, let alone the fact that I was friends with Jake and never knew he was into field herping. Go figure!! Nice looking Cal. Thanks for the photo. I'll have to forward the photo to my Aunt in PV, she hates snakes (LOL)!
-Phil

Hey guys,

Sorry it took me so long to reply, but I was out of town and away from a computer for a few weeks. My abberrant cal king, like the one posted by dudifusmaximus, was also found in Palos Verdes. I will also tell you that it was found within 100 yards of Del Cerro Park. I have only been to PV a handful of times, but have seen quite a few kings, gophers, and helleri there. A beautiful place for a hike, snakes or not.

Joe

Hey there
I live in Palos Verdes. I've never seen anything in the wild here that aberrant before or with such a dark head.

However, there were some Cals released in a few areas. Some of these Cals were CB and heavily aberrant.

One location was Ladera Linda Park.

Another was what is now Trump National Golf Course (before they mowed the land down to feed his ego.)

I am curious as all heck where you found that specimen. I think it is a definite fluke of nature for that area, or it may be a released animal or escapee.

Nice find (the zonata). Not easy to find up there unless you know the secret. I don't. Well, maybe I might but I haven't had the time to prove it.

I stumbled upon an area up there that I thought could be perfect for zonata. Of course it was on private property. The owner told me that he had never seen the "black, red and white snakes" until a few years ago when he saw 2 crawl across his backyard. That about sums it up for the Santa Monica mtns - so much private property. Hopefully that serves to protect the animals.

They are pulchra I am told, and that means the law says hands off.

Are there intergrades with coast mtn kings somewhere at the north/east part of the range?

Thanks for the compliment, however, I most certainly do not no the "secret" for finding z's. Since I do not live in California, I have never really gotten the chance to look for them before. I stumbled upon what I thought was a likely spot and just got really lucky on my first real attempt at finding them. Never underestimate the power of sheer dumb luck...

Joe

Great pics! I went flipping through "A Field Guide to Snakes of California" by Philip R. Brown and that zonata you've got pictured looks alot like the snake he's got pictured as L. Z. multifasciata. It's the thickness and proximity of the black part of the bands that makes it look that way, but the broken yellow band around the head is like the pulchra. Man, zonatas are my holy grail of herping, as in I've never seen one. I'm out herping every weekend around the base of the Santa Susanas.

reako45

They are considered pulchra in the Santa Monica mountains.
-Ryan