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This project started back in 2006, which was my best field herping year for Cal kings. I was lucky to come across this famous oil field near Signal Hill in Long Beach CA. This is probably the best photo of this field in its old state. Its since been changed.

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On January 15th 2006, I decided to enter for the first time. It was really dry this time of year, nothing was green, but it had rained the night before. I found several boards laid out and some piles that looked to have been made by a bulldozer with other pieces of plywood in it. I spread a bunch of those out. It wasn't until I lifted a couple of small pieces of bark out of desperation, that I had found what I was looking for. A baby hypermelanistic Cal king! I knew exactly what it was and was really excited about finding it. Here's some shots taken from the field right after I found the king.

Here he was as a young adult.

Notice how the belly gets darker near the tail? This is only seen in some hypermelanistic kings from Long Beach.

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Couple of months later I found this juvenile female.

She lightened up as she grew.

A more recent shot. She has now become darker inside her yellow bands.

This May the male was placed in with the female and copulation took place shortly after. These were only introduced once.

Gravid.

She laid 9 good eggs 40 days after I bred her.

Eggs were laid 6/17 and started piping on 8/23.

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Here's what the clutch looked like. There's about 6 out of the 9 here.

Interestingly, there were two females that were just a bit lighter shade of brown than the rest. I suspect they will brown out like the female did.

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I also bred my male to this female my friend found in the same field.

For some reason they were only hooked up an hour. I wasn't completely sure copulation took place, so I reintroduced them again the next day. This time they remained locked for several hours.

She was gravid 32 days and laid 5 good eggs.

All 5 hatched, but since they were all pretty much identical to the other LB kings, I didn't take any clutch pictures. However, I did photograph the darkest male out of the clutch.

Out of the 14 babies I got, none of them had the darker than normal belly pattern seen in my adult male. That's how it goes with LB Grease kings and other LB hypermelanistic kings found outside LB. I wouldn't say its rare, but its not common. Also, there are many LB hypermelanistic kings darker than mine inside the light rings. I've produced some that are a lot darker than the parents. This LB hypermelanistic morph is variable with the amount of hypermelanism it displays and it seems most of the time its the males that can be really dark.
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Awesome! I love the grease kings. Thanks for sharing all the pics and the history of your animals, Ross.

I've got a pair of gks and my male is much darker than the female just like you mentioned.

Btw... Is this trait recessive or the result of darker than average snakes breeding with darker than average snakes over time? The little bit of info i've read on them doesn't really specify how the trait works.

Thanks a lot, Aaron. I believe they are codominant. I collected a normal female from another population outside of Long Beach that produced one very dark Grease king out of 7 eggs. All the rest were normal and were not even slightly dark.

My friend bred a Grease king to a normal Cal king and got one or two that were hypermelanistic. I still want to try this my self.
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>>Thanks a lot, Aaron. I believe they are codominant. I collected a normal female from another population outside of Long Beach that produced one very dark Grease king out of 7 eggs. All the rest were normal and were not even slightly dark.
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>>My friend bred a Grease king to a normal Cal king and got one or two that were hypermelanistic. I still want to try this my self.
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I believe that is the result of a naturally occurring line bred trait.........
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

What is a line bred trait?
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>>What is a line bred trait?
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Evolution.....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

Oh....

lol
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>>Oh....
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>>lol
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

You rock dude!!!!! Awesome story, awesome pics, pure locale. Simply awesome.

Joe

Thanks a lot, Joe. Glad you liked it.
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1) it is about kingsnakes.

2) they are locality specific. So the purists like it!

3) it is a morph as well. ZSo the moroph guys like it!

4) it is an extremely rare locale. and historically relevant to Calif kingsnakes in what is now aall cocrete jungle.

5) it is an isoloated population for those who like islands and pure purity!

6) the pictures and the story are simply amazing! Seeing the wildcaughts insitu and the first gen babies hatch.

Okay this gets my vote for the perfect post of 2012!
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Wow, its an honor to hear that from you, Rainer. Thank you very much! You definitely understand the situation here. There's nothing like driving around Long Beach and then stopping by this field that still has a few kings left in it, but they are hard to find.
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That made me want to go outside.
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Gerard

"Sleep my friend and you will see, your dreams are my reality. "

www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

Very enjoyable post, Ross. The pictures and account were very nicely put together. Especially nice as things are almost at a standstill on the forum these days!

--Dennis

Thanks, Dennis. I wanted to save it for this time when things are dead. I actually have another one that will be much larger than this from a West Los Angeles locale that has 3 different morphs naturally. One recessive and two co doms. I'll probably have that one up in early January.
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Unfreakingbelievable post my friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love it!!!! What awesome animals!!!
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Genesis 1:1

Thanks a lot, Billy!
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Awesome post, Ross!

Great documentary, as well as photography!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Thank you very much, Sir.
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Awesome post!!!!!
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Gerard

"Sleep my friend and you will see, your dreams are my reality. "

www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

Thanks, Gerard! Glad you liked it.
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I'm going to have to fly out there next year and follow you around for a couple days. My friends hunt a lot down south, we have to get out some.
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Gerard

"Sleep my friend and you will see, your dreams are my reality. "

www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

A most enjoyable read... including pics of how your female changed over time was a nice touch.

My memory (at best) spans a one week time period so I can't say it's the best post of the year, but... it's easily the best post I can remember.

Gerry

haha Thanks a lot, Gerry. Its been fun learning about these kings and how they have turned out.
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I like your post and story Ross - very good stuff!

Tim

Thanks a lot, Tim. I really appreciate it.
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Amazing post, Ross. Grease kings are probably my favorite locality getula morph. Something about the dark, hypermelanistic heads and dirty bands really stands out.

I picked up a very dark specimen from Shannon Brown at the Sac Show this year. Growing like a beast and actually getting a tad bit more yellow around the bands (wish he would stay dirty haha).

I take it all greasers are from LBC, right?

Thanks, Zach. Yeah, most of the ones you see in the hobby today are from Long Beach. I happen to have a couple from a West LA locale that are rarely found there. And there are some from Orange County. Most of the ones in captivity are from this one field that everyone knows about in Long Beach.
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