Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't know how many of you frequent the kingsnake forum, but I posted this here as well because I thought a few of you might be interested.

I am taking care of a friends Mexican Black Kings at the moment so I thought I would try and get a photo of them with my Black Milks for comparison. (Both snakes shed within the last week)

Here's the Black Milk (female, 5-6 feet) -

and a male Mexican Black King (almost 6 feet himself!)

Here they are together. Unfortunately, the didn't appreciate each other's company and trying to get two captive, tame 6 footers to cooperate is near impossible!

and here's a closeup showing the differences. The Milksnake is blacker and has gray/white skin between its scales. The nigrita is dark brown and has brown skin between the scales.

Just thought it was an interesting comparison.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Wow Chris, that's pretty amazing how similar those animals are when placed side by side. Thanks for sharing the pictures.
It was good seeing you in September and again, great talk at the conference. Hope to see you in "alternaland" next year.
Nathan

Yeah, I saw your post on the other forum, and dropped you a friendly line,....like I said before,...great pics!(as always)

You're tough to beat in the photo department!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Great observation. I wonder if anyone has ever noticed the skin color difference before, or ever thought to look. You may have just contributed a fact that few if any herpers noticed.
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Mark

I know I haven't ever noticed it.

I remember several discussions on these KS forums about "what species do you think this is" where people were relying on head shape and other less obvious characters to try and distinguish gaigeae from nigrita.

The skin color seems too obvious to have overlooked, but sometimes those are the kind of things that get missed until you put them side by side.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas