Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know the topic was brought up in an earlier post.
Is there anybody working with local specific Cal Kings?
I'd love to see photo's of the different locals. I have seen photo's of Scissors Crossing, and Davis Cals on the classifieds,
but it would be nice to see the differences in other locals. Anybody have good photo's of Local specific Coastals, Deserts, what about Yumas, Nitida , and Conjuncta, and any others I don't know about? I can't wait for Brian Hubbs' book to come out!
Thanks,
-Phil

I don't know what phase this would be called (I'm waiting for hubbs book as well) but this is Antioch, CA locale -

It's not as brows as the So Cal coastals, the bands are not as clean as the Desert, but it has no yellow in the bands.

Here are my two male Redding, CA males - you can only see one head, but it is two snakes. Raised together, brumating together, will be separated after brumation.

I hear I'm lucky they didn't try to eat each other yet - I'm not going to push my luck with them not fighting now that they are sexually mature once they come out of brumation.

Like the Antioch, CA locale - they are not as chocolate brown as the So Cal coastal banded. They also do not have yellow in their bands. The bands appear to be cleaner than the Antioch, CA locale - but still not as clean as a Desert Banded.

According to Hubbs - as you go north from Redding they get even darker base color until they are true black pattern (like some of the desert kings).

-=-

Speaking of locality features with banded - I need to look at more northern locality snakes to be sure, but I think there is a difference in the underside of the tail that is locality specific. It seems that a lot of southern california snakes have completely black bottoms to their tail for about 2/3 of the tail from the vent before tail bands appear - while northern california banded have bands that break the black fairly quickly after the vent.

Hopefully I find a good number of Redding, CA kings this year so I can photograph that feature before release and see if it is the case.
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3.3.4 L. getula californiae
1.1 L. getula nigrita
1.0 Boa constrictor constrictor (suriname, fostering/rescue)
2.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

n/p
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3.3.4 L. getula californiae
1.1 L. getula nigrita
1.0 Boa constrictor constrictor (suriname, fostering/rescue)
2.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

Try californiaherps.com. Here's a link to page 1 of the Cal King pages (3 pages of lacality cal kings and their habitats).
Click on "species list" on the bar at the top and you can also see all kinds of other cool locality zonatas, rosies, gophersnakes, etc.
http://californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/l.g.californiae.html

That Yolo County specimen is nice!
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3.3.4 L. getula californiae
1.1 L. getula nigrita
1.0 Boa constrictor constrictor (suriname, fostering/rescue)
2.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

Thanks Aaron, those are some great photo's. Thanks for the link.
That's exactly what I was looking for.
-Phil
P.s. The pair of Ruthven's I got from you are doing great, they were worth the wait. When I get a decent camera, I'll post some pics.

Cool, love to see pics of them.

I know that Kerby is the morph king but I would think he has some locality cal kings as well.

BTW that was a great link Aaron brought. Here is another page. I love the Los Angeles king Brian took.

http://californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/l.g.californiae2.html

Here is what I used to find in vacant lots in the middle of west L.A. We used to think they were the ugliest Cal kings but now I like them.

I like the look of this one as well. I think because I have seen so many pretty ones that these stand out to me now:

That scrambled banded on Page 2 -

That's what my "weird" cal king is closest to -

Not quite - but something like it.
I'm fairly sure she is a form of hypomelanism. The funky bands with almost completely cream belly though - I had never seen before.

But the "scrambled banded" - the banding is a little bit different, but both have very aberrant banding - and both are cream bellies.
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3.3.4 L. getula californiae
1.1 L. getula nigrita
1.0 Boa constrictor constrictor (suriname, fostering/rescue)
2.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

Very cool. Those dirty Los Angeles Kings are what Brian Hubbs is calling "grease kings". They appear to be like the Davis locality kings in that most are normal but a few have that "greasy" look. It is probably inheritable IMO.

I'm pretty sure that it was a "Grease King" that I saw in the mid 80's in Hermosa Beach. The whole town of Hermosa is nothing but million $$$$ homes and strip malls now. It's pretty sad. It's like that song "They tore down paradise, and put up a parking lot." and only the rich can afford to use it.
-Phil