Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone have any picures of these? From what I here from a good ole hunter from back in the 70's told me about these. Just curious if anyone knows of thes FL kings that come off 27.
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B

The name given to these kings was More Haven Kings. They were known to be a smaller than usaul FL king with browns and yellow's.

This was a small population of FL kings and could have been breed in with hypo "brooksi".

I'll have slides of kings from this area in two weeks, the slidesw are from the 70's so the color's will most likely be distorted.
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B

Moore Haven is part of the largest population of kingsnakes in Florida, the canefields.

I've caught a bunch of Moore Haven kings. I have noticed no size difference between these, and those found in other areas. They get big in Moore Haven. Most are dark for FL kings, with best ones being jet black with cream to yellow bands.

This is one I caught a few years ago:

I've heard the look of kings in this area has changed over the last 50 years. I'd be curious to see your pictures to see if they look any different than what I am used to seeing.

I agree,......and that locality are typical of what are commonly known as "Cane field Kings". Your pic is a very good representation of many of those animals.

Many years ago, I had one identical to the one you posted that was captured west of Ft. Lauderdale as a friend of mine was doing fence work off of Alligator Alley(State Rd. 84).

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

I apologize for not writing clearer. I was writing the info while I was on the phone with my friend.

Anyway, at least back in the mid 60's - 70's he and others pulled what they called chocolate Moore Haven king's. Him, Art Bass and a couple others knew of an area off 720 that these distinct looking kings came from. Including Bill Love!

The way these FL kings were described to me was that the had the same color as a chocolate CA king. He hit the spot in 2001 and the kings he found looked (as he described) more like the one foxturtle posted. A 4.5 foot male was a biggin.

I know there is a large population of cane kings in that area. But, like foxturtle said this population of kings has changed as the years have passed.

I hope the slides I get aren't too distorted.

I didn't start hunting kings until the late 80's. By that time secret spots were being exposed and raped, even more than they already were, by lots of new people.
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B

I started in some local places in Lauderdale when I was real young in the early 70's, but never found too many kings in the areas I was looking, the kings were generally found much further west of the areas I was frequenting. More corns(Red Rats to us then), Yellow Rats, some Indigos once in a while, water snakes, Rough Green Snakes, Ringnecks, racers, Coachwhips, etc.. were a little more common to find.

I also remember "Upscale" who posts here fairly often caught a baby Indigo inside an empty Coke can that was lying on the ground in a park in the center of the city of Ft. Lauderdale back in the 70's as well.

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

I also remember "Upscale" who posts here fairly often caught a baby Indigo inside an empty Coke can that was lying on the ground in a park in the center of the city of Ft. Lauderdale back in the 70's as well.

WOW! I want to hear more about this one
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table #184 DAYTONA EXPO

You know - Rana draytonii use to be Rana aurora draytonii because they look extremely similar to Rana aurora (what use to be Rana aurora aurora) it turns out that Rana aurora is closer to Rana cascadae than it is to Rana draytonii.

FUNKYRES

No I think that was Devon Dartnell who did that, but it is true! This was back when we were in sixth grade, I think. It is too early to even remember right! We hunted Easterlin Park back then when we could talk our parents into dropping us off there. I hunted an area that is now called Palm Aire that was in the very early stages of development and there were extraordinary huge Everglades rat snakes, Indigo, diamondbacks, scarlet kings, corals, it was some of the last stands of natural Florida around here. It was pretty fantastic. I also hunted along the railroad tracks from Sunrise Blvd all the way up to where Easterlin park is, this is where I-95 is now through there. Amazing white sugar sand habitat destroyed forever. This was some nice dry xeric scrub with palmettos that had coachwhips, which I think are basically extinct in Broward County now, and garter snakes, another thing you can’t find anymore (imagine!) Kingsnakes were fairly uncommon anywhere until you got out by the agricultural areas that had the irrigation ditches. My best secret for collecting them were to flip the heavy mats of built up grass cuttings along the small canals that had banks of grass mowed by the highway maintenance guys. Only place I found mudsnakes, which are actually gorgeous snakes. The grass mats were warm like you wouldn’t believe. If you found turtle nests along the bank, you found kingsnakes. It was some sweaty work to flip the long row of grass mats and you might flip a cottonmouth, or I should say you would flip a cottonmouth, so you had to really watch for them. I’m forty seven now, so this is going back a pretty long time. I would call some of that the good old days, but I rather order captive bred any day!

Yes,....I remember walking those exact places you mentioned too before and during the building of I-95 through Sunrise Blvd. and Oakland Park Blvd. I remember Paul Stone and I catching four young coachwhips in the Bradley Airport field one day one after the other,....one of which went to my six-foot Indigo at the time. I believe that was one of the ones that YOU remember seeing in my room too..LOL!.

I remember Alligators, huge Softshell turtles, Garter Snakes, Yellow Rats and such out there as well.....oh!,...zillions of little Racerunner lizards out in that sugar sand area there too!

Some of those Yellow Rats in that area got really big too,...me and some other friends had some that were seven plus feet, and really nice examples too!

Those were fun times man!

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

I remember the first baby indigo I ever found- I did not know what it was! It looked like some weird kind of snake I never saw before! I saw an indigo every time I went to Easterlin park, but could never do anything but listen as it slid away through the thick ferns- impossible to catch.
Hope all is well up there Doug, aren’t you up by Melbourne? My mom lives just west of the airport in Jacksonville and so far they are just getting some mild rains. I thought for sure this thing would be over and done by this weekend for everybody headed to Daytona. Looks like it might move away but everybody is going to have to drive through it at least. Wish I were going. Be safe!