Reptile & Amphibian Forums

May seem like a silly question, but we live on a wooded 1.7 acres in the burbs with a creek flowing through back. We have found quite a few snakes, including a Speckled King that is native to this area. We have a good amount of mice, would there be anything wrong with raising Speckled or buying captive adults to release back in the wild?

I figure nature can always do better than we can and maybe they naturally space out perfectly, but I've also seen outdoor enclosures in Flordia where a few acres are enclosed and hundreds of snakes live in there. Of course my backyard isn't enclosed, but anything wrong with having a back yard full of Speckled Kings? Another risk I see is getting nature out of balance as the Kings do eat other snakes and although I like Kings the best and don't want any Rattlesnakes around my daughter, that isn't balanced.

I wouldn't really recommend that, and the reasons are MANY!

I would imagine if you "googled" some key words pertaining to this, you will probably get a decent amount of scientific data as to why this shouldn't be done. At first thought, one might think that this is okay to do, but in reality, it is NOT.

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

It is illegal in many places.
Number one reason is possible introduction of exotic pathogens.

This has already happened with California Desert Tortoises - people who thought they were doing good released captives which introduced an exotic disease to the wild population.

It's probably happened with other species as well.
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I decided my old sig was too big.

"Stocking" usually does not work, in addition to being problematic and often unlawful... A basic principle of wild life management is that habitat will support a limited number of wildlife. If you want more speckled kings for example, find a way to improve the habitat, so it will support more of them which apparently are there already. i.e. provide rock piles and shelter for hibernaculums and for lizards to congregate. Eliminate the feral cats that probably predate upon reptiles, and upon the speckled kings prey base, etc.

If you just "stock" sp. king or almost any form of wild life without improving the habitat, the surplus animals will just dissapear via predation, immigration, failure to thrive etc.

I have improved habitat for lizards, and then was sort of dissapointed when striped racers came in and systematically cleaned out many of the lizards from the rockpiles. But that should be expected as I provided a habitat for more prey animals and the predators increased... Make your property a wild life refuge by improving the habitat! Good luck, Vic

Vic's reply is a great way to increase the possibility of more sightings in the future. Sometimes it takes as little as 3-4 months for area cover to become effective. I have seen more animals both prey and predators utilizing tin and plywood on several sites. I wouldn't put any animals there, they are already there. It wouldn't bode well for both the introduced or the residents. The stress of releasing captives from somewhere else may lead to wandering to find their real home, to the point of death. my .02.

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Todd Hughes