Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This pic was taken by Kevin Enge .

Keith

OK, how did you get that pic? I want the story.

Well I got the pic via email ohhhh.... you mean the how was the pic accomplished LOL. That Kevin Enge will have to answer he took the pic. He may have sent me the specifics but I simply saved the pic from his email and put it on my site. He sent me that pic a couple of months ago.

Regards

Keith

I saw that pic at Keith's site the other day and loved it. Tough snakes indeed!
I can not wait to get my baby GA easterns from Will, they're gorgeous, I'm so excited to add the little buggers to my collection, aka family
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"Klaatu...Verata...Nicht--cough, cough, cough!"

Well you will be happy to know that the snake in the pic is the grandfather to the snakes you are getting from Will (if you are getting his GA locality Easterns that is).

Keith

Siblings of yours I believe. (right Will?) That is something very cool to know. I'll have to take that pic and blow it up to poster size and hang it over their enclosure as encouragement...'See that guys..thats your grandpappy!' LOL
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"Klaatu...Verata...Nicht--cough, cough, cough!"

I like getula and EDB's almost the same...but I guess that fight was over before it started.
Poor little diamondback, why can't those damn easterns just eat mice....and ball python morphs! (LOL)
Chris

After still going EDB-less yet seeing so many kings in GA I'm definitely rooting for the rattler. Besides I'm a sucker for underdogs.

Van

The Douglas area in Coffee County, out towards Westgreen to be exact. My inlaws live in that area and have a nice piece of peroperty that includes swamps, ponds, and deep pine forest. The last time I went herping there I saw more cottonmouths than god (NO JOKE), absolutely NO kings, and one adult plus 7 baby EDB's. The adult was about a quarter mile away from the babies so I don't know if it was a parent, (didn't get close enough to ask either lol), and the babies were found in 2 groups, 2 and 5, fairly close to each other and unfortunately very close to the house (50 ft). I scooped them up in an old hanging basket and took them deeper into the woods. I tell you though, I was SOOOOO tempted to take a pair home, they were precious!
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"Klaatu...Verata...Nicht--cough, cough, cough!"

.. back in the day, that is. If that EDB was still kickin'!
:Mark

Try putting that snake in with my Indigo snake and see which is "The King". I'll bet the king will have a slightly bad day. If you ever stop by Sd, lets try it out .

Terry.
PS. F the mods

Hello,

I agree, I've seen some S. Fla. Eastern indigos that, on a contest of sheer mass, would put my biggest eastern to shame. However, while an indigo feeding response is quite a memorable site, I've experienced a few, I really wonder how all that pressing and pushing stuff would stand up to the savage constriction response of a large male eastern king. I honestly don't know how an indigo would react to its prey responding to an initial strike with a counter jab followed by quick, precise constriction. Because honestly, when other snakes are concerned, easterns simply don't consider themselves as the prey, no matter how large the opponent.

In my less experienced (and dumber) days, I've had the misfortune of creating situations in which I was required to pry, or attempt to pry, eastern kings off of much larger snakes. These included a boa constrictor, a rainbow boa, a burmese python, and a really unfortunate Solomon Isle Boa (the eastern escaped, and b & e'd into the other snake's cage, attacked, killed and ate the SIB, then puked up the much larger snake 2 days later). But in every case, even though the eastern had zero chance of successfully digesting the meal, the snake attacked, constricted and killed (once) or nearly killed (every other time) the much larger snake(s). Now granted, none of these other boid victims commonly eat snakes like that giant racer, but most had a body mass comparable to a good sized indigo. I don't know, it would certainly be an interesting contest, but if a big eastern and a big indigo were to throw down, I bet both would wish they had walked (crawled) away in the end. Sorry for the ramble. Peace.

eastern fan will

Who would win there? Put a 1000 gram king with a 1000 gram indigo... and that is probaby not unheard of right? I mean dont indigos and kings share the same range? Do they share the same habitat?

Lol, this is like dog fighting with snakes!

hopefully nobody tries this at home , If they share the same range wouldn't someone have a picture by now? Thats not the first time I've heard of someone finding a kingsnake eating a rattler...
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My greybands:
Prince Mandrake and Princess Caldera

Eastern indigos are an endangered species. Your chances of finding a king and an endangered indigo battling it out aren't too high.

In much of the Indigo's range in FL (north of Okeechobee) you're more likely to find indigos than kings.

Van

I'm not sure if they share the exact same habitats, but they share some of the same ranges and must sometimes meet, no?
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Got hips like Cinderella / Must be having a good shame / Talking sweet about nothing / Cookie I think you're Tame

Down here in Florida Both Indigos and Racers have been observed eating young Florida (mutt) kings. I think on two the same size I would be inclined to back the king unless the Indigo got a solid head bite first...Frank

saw that when i was a kid. found a fl king constricting a similar sized indigo next to a gopher tortise hole. when i approached, the king started to drag the indigo into the gopher's hole. i grabbed both snakes (yea, i know, should have let nature take its course. i was 12, ok?) and thinking id save the indigo, tried to get them apart. about 20 minutes later i had a pissed king, and a very dead (doornob) indigo. measurements were the king was around 3'11", and the indigo was about 4'. i have some pics somewhere in a box of the 2 snakes. i gave one picture to okeefenokee joe when he came to my middle school. he gave me a hard time about taking the kings meal.

in my own experience, my 3.5' eastern(RIP) once grabbed my brothers 6' black rat when we were showing them to some friends. he had that rat wrapped faster than any of us realized what had happened.

no lie, eastern kings are, pound for pound, inch for inch, THE baddest of the north american snakes. period.

I guess this is something one has to experience. Unless you have actually tried to pry a getula getula off of another snake, you cannot possibly cannot fathom what we are saying. Instinct at its best, or worst.

Will

to his Y.T.indigo also called cribos. ( I think it was a Y.T.). He came home to find her eaten by the cribo. You can check out the forum to read the story it was in the begining of July so you may have to scroll down some. It was a big cali. not an eastern king though they get about the same mass wise. the predator was also not an eastern indigo but a Y.T. but again they get about the same mass as Dry.Corias Couperi spelled wrong.

I Think it was a 6-7' Texas Indigo and a ancient 5' Cal King. Also Cals dont get the same girth as Floridana or Easterns they tend to be slimmer unless extremely overweight.

Regards

Keith

Ivolving Rubber Boas and California Mtn. Kings. I spoke with Richard Hoyer who studies Rubber Boas and he did a study on feeding response with Rubbers and zonatas both of which are constrictors and will eat other snakes. In his trials baby Rubbers and zonatas from the same locality would prey on each other but adults of both species would not prey on the other no matter what the size (ie an adult zonata would not eat any size Rubber Boa even a much smaller one and vice versa).
BTW all permits as required by CA Fish & Game were aquired for this study.

Indigo and a equally sized King and I bet the King turns him into a iridescent turd . Ive heard of people finding Kings and other snakes for that matter with tire tracks over them and they are still crawling around so a Indigo bite while probably strong only controls 5% of the Kings body. That leaves 95% of coiled steel to contend with.

Keith

are simply tough a$$ snakes ! 4-5 years ago I managed a pet store that did exotics fish reptiles etc... and we also kept mammals for food and pets. Anyway a little girl and her mother asked me to show them some rats as they were interested in a new pet. We had a large screen bin in which the adult rats were kept and as I opened the top the biggest craziest Rat Ive seen literally launched itself at my face. Due to extreme bravery er... fear I mean I slammed the lid down just in time. The little girl was crying and he mother was pissed but I had no idea there was an insane rat in there. Upon investagation I found out some guy simply left that rat at our door the previous day and I noticed the rat was chewing on every other rat in the cage as well. I decided to take some action on this feral beast so I put on my super thick bite proof leather gloves and threw that thing in with "Big Nasty"also known as the "garbage disposal". I was a little nervous that the rat would beat the hell out the 6' 4" 7 pound Brooksi Kingsnake as he wasn't terribly hungry. After placing the feral Rat in the enclosure he walked right up to Nasty and nipped him ! I was freakin out and fumbling to get the cage open when I noticed alot of Brooksi unfurling quickly and BAM that Rat disappeared in a blur of yellow scales. That Rat was simply killed by constriction in minutes and eaten promptly thereafter. This Rat was a snake killer I could tell and alot of snakes shy away from agressive rodents that dont take off and run except Kings of course! So if ol' Big Nasty were around today (died a couple of years after the Rat incident) you would not want me to stop by SD or California would be minus one Indigo.

Keith