Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's a couple of photos of a good size Gopher Snake I found in my yard about a week ago, I thought you guys would get a kick out of them. She was 67 inch and weighed 7-lbs 3-ounces. I usually find about 15 to 20 a year in my yard. Take Care. MM CAL KING.

Very nice! Was it calm? Looks that way in the pics.
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Mark

Not at first, she calmed down after my partner frank Retes came over and did his thing. He got a way with reptiles.

Truly a monster. Very heavy for that length! WOW. Arizona I presume?
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Yeah, Tucson, I have found a lot of 5 footers and a few 6 footers but none of them have been that heavy. Martin

nice find man! I also saw one of those while I was in Tucson just outside of the city.
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- Matt

1.0 Black Milk '04
1.0 Andean Milk '06
0.1 Eastern King '97
0.1 Bullsnake '09

A classic (and beautiful) example of a large affinis. From the photo it is easy to see how affinis was once named the Arizona bullsnake. Stull (1940) hypothesized that affinis is ancestral to adjacent Pituophis due to its centralized distribution and generalized form in relation to the adjacent Pits. The paternally classic gopher snake? Interesting hypothesis as it's characteristics speak loudly of linage with bullsnakes and the other gophers. Would be interesting to see a modern phylogenetic tree of the Pituophis to see the actual linage relationships. Interesting that bulls are lumped in with catenifer. Where's that chart?

Check out this paper by Javier Rodriquez-Robles (PDF on the web - just google it):

Molecular Systematics of New World Gopher, Bull, and Pinesnakes (Pituophis: Colubridae), a Transcontinental Species Complex.

The phylogenies there are based on a single gene (apparently a good one for these kinds of comparisons) and have affinis in closest to sayi, deserticola, and ruthveni and to a lesser extent bimaris and vertebralis. Nice discussion of the species status of ruthveni in there as well.

What a nice big beauty. I need to move, what a blast it must be finding such nice big gophers in the yard. Doesn't hurt having the "Snake Whisperer Retes" with you as well.

Franks the man, Never meet someone who is so in touch with Reptiles, and when we go herping he always finds the cool stuff, and Snakes and monitors breed in his hands, its unbelievable. Martin

Wow! She's a big one! Affinis area awesome snakes. Any attitude? Most people that encounter them always say they have 'tude.

reako45