I found two gravid female mole kings under a large piece of tile at 8pm last night! In 24 years of herping, this is my best find ever. The best part is that these snakes are some of the prettiest mole kings I've ever seen. One of the females has a peach background with red saddles...I had to do a double take at first because it looked like a corn snake. The other is greenish background with orange saddles. I also have a '04 buckskin male caught as a neonate about 5 miles from the site where these two females were found (also Catawba County locale) with red saddles, so this looks to have the makings of an exciting breeding project irregardless of how this year's eggs turn out.
Mole kings are such underrated animals. They have the size and disposition of the corns, plus a variety of colors, as evident from the Catawba County trio that I have. I will post pics as soon as possible...I'm old school and have to borrow a friend's digital camera!
Before anyone takes shots at me for collecting them, they were found behind an abandoned steakhouse off Hwy 16 in Catawba County. The 200 acres of pasture land next to the steakhouse that was surely the home of these wonderful animals was bulldozed early this spring and is being turned into a WalMart, plus the surrounding area is all slated for development (restaurants and a neighborhood).
Anyone else who is working with mole kings, please send me an email. I have been keeping them for 3-4 years, but there is very little information out there about them. I have never tried breeding...females are hard to come by...and would like to hear about the experiences of others.
Thanks,
Michael
