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i have a chance to pick up a two year old female hypo florida king, i want to get into brooksi hypo are they the same snake? it looks like one, but if they are two differnt sp ill wate for brooksi

The name brooksi is way over used today in the hobby. Technically, a "Brooks" King is nothing more than a light color phase of the Florida King(floridana) that generally was found in the area of Miami/Dade county and the surrounding areas, although darker ones are frequently caught in this range as well.

The breeder probably chose to simply call his hypo line floridana instead of brooksi, really, they are synonymous, and are one in the same........take your pick!

I think if you were to look at the snake in question, there would be no difference,...except for the label!

~Doug

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

thank you for the help steve

np
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ÌÏËÙÍ ËÁÂE!

Doug, that florida king has a neat head pattern. Looks like a Halloween Pumpkin to me.
Steve
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Velvet Ant(Dasymutilla occidentalis) This colorful ground wasp (female only) has a sting so potent that it also earned the nickname "cow killer"

Even when I was just starting out driving to herp spots in south Florida (1977) we always considered most king snakes to be Florida kings even if collected (or just observed) in the Everglades or south Dade. The Brooks was something of an elusive thing we considered a rarity and a prize to find. The range is not clearly defined like most snakes. The typical Florida king we always read was found to about “the Alley” (where I-75 cuts east and west across the state at Broward Count) like a mythical border between distribution of Florida king types and “Brooks” king types. Didn’t take too long to figure out it did not work that way. Florida type dark typical kings occur throughout the lower part of the state. Where Brooks are suppose to be, they are still a rare find and not a complete replacement of the typical form. This goes back a long time. Now people are saying they have been released, some people restocked the Brooks area (I can’t imagine anybody did that) and all wild populations are tainted and ruined. That might be true with development and man’s mucking with the natural water flow, agriculture, etc. The guys that study this stuff did away with the “Brooks” name because they couldn’t find any probably. Maybe they are gone from the wild, but there use to be such a thing, but was never enough to validate it, I’m guessing. No doubt when you see a good one, you know it. It is really just a hobby term, and the very best ones are a creation from selective breeding nice light ones. I think the hobby Brooks are better than the “real” ones found in south Dade when they were a sure pure thing. If you can breed a hybrid a couple of generations and make one of the parents “disappear” in the line, I don’t see why we can’t refine the “Brooks” a couple of generations and start calling them pure “Brooks” again. Wow, what a boring rant… I shoulda just said, “yea- what Doug said!”

I was thinking back to the "good ol' days" the whole time I was reading your post! I also remember catching many darker average floridana in those areas that "should" have been more habitated by the so-called brooksi too. I myself would just LOVE!! to find one that looked like a bright yellow banana in those areas you mentioned!that look like some of the ones produced today!
Wouldn't that be a special animal!?......WOW!

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

">>The name brooksi is way over used today in the hobby. "
Very Very True

" they are synonymous, and are one in the same........take your pick! "
Heresy! for such utterances you shall burn for all eternity in the beach bonfires of Daytona.

Okeetee isn't synonomous with cornsnake and "desert phase" isn't synonomous with cal king. The occurence of brooksi is inconsistent and the speciation poor but that's why it was sunk by taxonomists. It's still exists as a variety or breed. Let's not continue bastardization the term. Breeders normally make great effort to differentiate.
It must be wintertime.
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Lindsay Pike
Urotopia Uromastyx