Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here is a link to a field story about the capture of a MEGA Eastern King.
Giant Eastern Kingsnake Anecdote

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n/p

Mitch Hiers has been around for quite awhile at least show him a little respect. As far as pics Jeff Ive never seen you post a pic of anything anywhere as far as I know you dont own a single snake LOL. Just hasslin ya little but still dude post some pics or something it ain't hard.

Keith
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I just simply dont have the time to learn all this sh&*),lol. It would behoove me to,as I undersell everything because of it.Just too busy with my 4 Au pairs this weekend to deal with it! Natasha and Kanita continue to tie me up,what am I to do? I DO have pics of that,but this is a pg-13 site!Jeff

Interesting story as it brings back to mind some I saw years ago. About a dozen years ago I came across some "HUGE" WC Chain Kings while meeting up with a friend at a local herp shop. There were several and the owner was very anxious in showing them to us. All I can say is they were (every one of them) in excess of 6' and looked nothing like any other chain kings I had ever seen before. Their heads 3-4 times as wide as any others I had seen. Their girth was extremely wide as well. Appearing more ratsnake in appearance than kingsnake. Since I had just recently relocated to Jacksonville, FL from NY I figured these must be typical from around here.

All that would later be explained to me was these guys were brought in time and again from a local commercial collector who at that time ventured much into South GA. He had come across an area (which he would never let others in on) where these kings were common place. Only problem he had with them is they would never take any rodents and in never found young ones. He also stated the area he came across these kings was also heavily populated by some rathar large canebrakes as well (I had never seen any of these though).

The particular group of kings (5 in total) I had seen perished in captivaty and most all others caught were typically traded with importers for boids and such by this commercial collector. Closest example I could give to you of their size (or should say proportions) would be an average sized adult eastern indigo with the head shape of a huge gray rat.

Would be great if this info. sparks anyone's memory of seeing or hearing of kings like these with possibly a pic as well. Quite a sight they were.

While I'm at it I would also like to hear from others who may be familiar with Florida kings that were commonly collected from the wild during the 70's. There were many pretty common distinct color phases I had seen come out of the South that I do not see these days. Trying to pin some counties down that are now pretty much devoid of these kings.

Rich Hebron

Hey Rich

WOW I wish I would have seen them as they sounded like beasts. My first Eastern King was maybe a GA animal(dont know for sure) it was back in 1988 and I was just out of high school. My local pet store got it for me but it was supposed to be a cb juvenile and ended up being a massive 6' angry Eastern King . He also like the ones you saw had one of those giant noggin's. It's crossbars were like a Cal Kings as well (much like typical GA Easterns)with no chains just rings. It also would only eat snakes and here in Wisconsin you can only get Garters 3-5 months out of the year. I ended up trading him after about 6 months but I did manage to tame him down before ddoing so.
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Here is a pic of an animals from Coffee Co.,GA and it looks identical pattern wise to that snake I got back in 1988. the head a bit smaller on this one then the one I had.

Keith

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Seriously, he has a frozen big male in the freezer that MINIMALLY is the size of a basketball JAMMED together. I did measure it and it was damn close....call it 8'.I know pics are a rare thing for these anecdotal specimens,but I am sure that anyone else's trip to Chuck's house would have come across that behemoth...Anyone??? Jeff

Jeff

Whats the locality of Chuck's 8' Eastern thats on ice ?

Keith
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Keith, I think it was a MD animal.Chuck was a commercial collector in Md and Fl in the 70s....really before is was looked down upon.He has forgotten more about finding snakes than most of us will even know.Many familiar with him judge him unfairly with short-term tunnel vision but I have always relished his knowledge if not his cryptic nature about keeping it all to himself,lol. Anyone new to snakes or breeding or field work owes at least a little homage to the old-timers that provided critters for public consumptions.Its through these animals that we got to see what interesting specimens these were either in person,in pictures or by proxy.Jeff

Keith, i love these tales of giant reptiles. wish there was documentation,as so often these claims turn out to be fish tales(most recently remember the 49 foot retic that somehow shrunk to 19 feet after the official tape measure). just a note-back in the early 1980s the Norfolk Zoo, when chris pague was in charge of reptiles, had on display a 7 foot(authentic) eastern king that was caught in the nags head,nc area. it was a massive brute,and even dwarfs the well over 6 foot male i currently have.
Link

what a beast it truly was,have seen several large eastern kings but maybe only one that would have rivaled that animal.

STRETCHx