Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Heres a clutch of newly hatched high white kings, they are a product of a reverse spotted female and a male thats close. The female is very white, the male a little yellowish. Of the eight babies, four are spotted, the rest are nearly so.

This dead dor, king is from an isolated local nearby me. They are nearly black and very large. This female is not a large one, but some from here get over five feet.

This male king I found crossing a road by one of our field sites, a couple days ago. I read below how mountain kings are from up high and need to be colder then othersnakes. Someone forgot to tell this one, as it was at 3800ft in elevation and from a very hot area.
Cheers

>>>>as it was at 3800ft in elevation and from a very hot area.
>>Cheers

Frank, Neat babies. Put that pyro in a plastic box in at 700' elevation with no a/c and see how he likes it hahahaha You should have nice night time lows at 3800', no?
Forky
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Herp Conservation Unlimited
Mexicana Group Directory
Photography by Joseph E. Forks

Yea Joe, but no king or colubrid would like to be in a hot box at 700 ft and no A/C. not any kind.

I will ask you this, have you taken resting temps of kings from any elevation and compared them? This may surprise you.

Also, on a related note. We find in perferred temps(ones the individuals pick) are very very similar at any elevation. The only slight difference is, the survival temps. Higher elevations, the snakes(all kinds) can survive more extremes(behavioral not phyiscal?????) then their low elevation relatives. Also snakes from extremely hot areas can survive slighly hotter temps. And drier areas, drier humidity, etc etc, not perferred useable temps/humidity, just the extremes.

As I commonly mention here, all these snakes, want to pick from cool temps 50F plus, up to aprox 100F and it does not matter what species and what elevation. If you offer a useable range to choose from, your captives will do extremely well, at any elevation you live at. Just some thoughts and experiences from an old guy, cheers

Frank,
That was a smart ass comment I made, you know that hahahaha

Yes I have been recording active and resting temps for years now and I have seen some things that are very surprising. Some things I never would have guessed.

It also quite interesting to see how different species can utilize the exact same habitat, even micro habitats, with quite different temperature regimes. I have accumulated a good bit of data for elevations near 4000' and elevations from 800' and lower, not much in between lately, but the data does support what you are saying with some exceptions.

I will say this for the getula I've been taking data from at 4000' (one particular population). They like it cool, consistently cooler than any other population of getula I have experience with. The habitat provides the means to utilize significantly warmer temps, and as far I know they avoid those warmer temps both at rest and active.

I also know that one single observation or piece of data is pretty insignificant, especially without some type of context. Only with a really large database are you able to garner significant natural history notes. In that context one pyro on the crawl at 95°F means squat, or same for an alterna resting on a rock-cut with a surface temp of over 100°F in direct sunlight.I have found them like that, and continue to look, but I'm not seeing that everyday, that's for sure.
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Herp Conservation Unlimited
Mexicana Group Directory
Photography by Joseph E. Forks

Beautiful!

John

2,000 feet at Fish Creek on the backside of the Superstitions in Saguaro cactus habitat (Hubbs, 2004). 3,800 sounds incredibly high compared to THAT...ay, Mr. Apostle? Are you saving me some adult mice? I need them end of next week (Thurs or Friday) please...

and I will properly instruct it in how it needs to live.

-=-

seriously though, don't the go underground when it is warmer than they like, an option they don't have in captivity?
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Arrrggg!
It's like Shalom, but for pirates.
- iCarly

I wonder if snakes dream of plastic, aspen, 81 deg F and 2.3 sq ft of living space.
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Mark

lol.
I don't know why.
But you saying that entertained the hell out of me.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.kingpinreptiles.com

>> This male king I found crossing a road by one of our field sites, a couple days ago. I read below how mountain kings are from up high and need to be colder then othersnakes. Someone forgot to tell this one, as it was at 3800ft in elevation and from a very hot area.>>

This is not news, G. Merker measured some active L. zonata and found that they have rather high body temperatures, higher than what one may expect from a high altitude animal. Like all reptiles, mountain kingsnakes need heat to be active and to digest food. I believe that it is competition from the common kingsnake, rather than perference for low temperatures, which is restricting the distribution of mountain kings to higher elevations.

Gosh, you sound a lot like Rick Staub...

>>Gosh, you sound a lot like Rick Staub...>>

Is that good or bad? LOL!

......I have one pyro pyro and 1.2 knobs......I got them so I'd have something for the bottom of the rack....they won't eat at the bottom..too cold......they wanted up more......when I put them around 80 they would start to eat.....they like it at 80---84 here.........

........and I'm at 300 above sea level I think too....

......would love to see wild pyros ...mexicana ssp....GB....LOL.anything but black rats............

Thanxx
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