Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My dad said he used to see Eastern kings around the Baton Rouge area in the 60s. He said he used to catch the Easterns all the time around his house when he was a kid and never saw a speckled king till like the late 60s/early 70s. He usually knows the snake when he sees it, though he may have mistake a baby speckled for an Eastern. Anyone know if Eastern's range used to extend way westward?
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0.0.1 California King Snake
0.1.0 Ball Python

No... never has. I used to live in Louisiana (80's) and herped the entire state form east to west and I found LOTS of speckleds!
None ever resembled an eastern. It IS possible (but highly unlikely), that someone has turned a few loose near a given area a long time ago and they could have survived - given the climates are similar to that further east...
Here's a pair o' easterns doin' the do....

Zee

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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

If they did release some (farmers/ranchers might have) - it probably would have only been a decade or so before the speckled genes took them over as far as phenotype is concerned.

I know some ranchers use to buy and release kingsnakes thinking it would reduce the rattlesnakes. But I suspect most of those cases, they bought them from locals and probably were collected fairly local.
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3.6 L. getula californiae
1.1 L. getula nigrita
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1.0 Boa constrictor constrictor (suriname, fostering/rescue)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata