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This guy was caught by a friend last night as he walked his dog. It came from a heavily wooded area onto the road around 8:00 after heavy rains. The area is fairly rural and near a large river, so it is marshy around. He has several scars on his body and a few nematodes to suggest he has been out a while.

Oh, the cool thing, he was caught in Coastal South Carolina, lol. No East Coast West Coast Rivalry here huh, lol? He is about 24-28 inches long.

The fact that it was caught is indeed cool. The last thing anyone wants to see is a population of Cal Kings pop up on the east coast. That would not be cool. Hopefully you will ge the parasites taken care of and have a nice new pet
Tom Stevens
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TomsSnakes.com

I don't think that would be possible in the eastern king range because they would eat them. I have florida kings and they go after cal kings like a bat out of hell. They go after cal kings even more than cornsnakes. It litterally puts them in a eating frenzy. Last year I discovered scenting mice with Cal kings is better that water snakes scent.

Something about a cal king just tells an eastern getula "EAT ME"!
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"Yeah ya told me, and ya wrote it down too. But how the hell am I supposed to remember!"

OK, duely noted, but explain how he crawled out of the woods? The guy who caught it thought he had caught a wierd looking garter snake! Actually, more than a snake eating him, I was more amazed that he made it due to the white coloration. That is the same argument that we had in the Rat snake forum, last week with the Hypo Greenish rat. There are just so many predators in the area that you would think would have seen him.

One thought I have had is that we get alot of pine limbs that fall to the ground and have a very slimy white fungus on them. These obviously don't move, but I wonder if maybe the predators think these snakes are these type of limbs? Just a thought.

The snake is pretty scarred up, several on his neck and underbelly. The two on his neck look like they were probably pretty bad at one time. You can barely see them in this pic. One is on left side and runs from towards the head to the tail (beside the first blotch) and the other is a spot right behind the neck on the right side.

Even though we are in SC, most of the kings offered for sale in pet stores are Cal Kings, not easterns, so it really isn't that suprising that they escape, just glad he was found and back in captivity prior to breeding with an eastern and polluting the genes (supposing he had lived that long).

Either way, I am happy to have ended up with him whether people believe me or not. After all, it is just a Cal King, not like I can retire now or anything you know?

assuming he originated in Cal. he was probably going to Miami or NY ya know all the hype. thats one lucky snake ,why did the snake cross the road ?to get to the other side,but turnpikes highways,mountains, rivers.give that snake a mouse he deserves it and find out his itinerary or destination and i hope he read about the L.G.G.mean rivalry

...but there's been more than a few instances of California kings found down here in FL king range ya know....
I wish they'd all be eaten before they multiply or intergrade...
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

Hi Daryl. Neat find. Where in SC are you? and tell me more about the hypo greenish. Shoot me an e-mail.

wkhan@hargray.com

Wasil