Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Greetings, Years ago (early 70's) we use to see some incredible WCs come in that were of a ultra high white coloration as well as extremely high yellow/sulphur individuals. As is typical when herps start to vanish in the wild such sub species (such as these once were termed) are then said possibly to never have existed in pure form at all instead now termed intergrades. I personally do not know what they should have been termed but it is pretty similar to what I saw occur with everglade's rats. What we see now is not what I saw then. I wish I took pics back then but ever see a large rat eating 7' red snake with those deep red eyes? Was a sight to see.

This brings me to Brooksi. I have viewed some pretty impressive pics of several people's stock over the past few years. I'm curious to know what exactly is being mantained. The high whites have been termed herps that were collected on the high grounds of South Florida as the yellows were said to have been caught in the canals. Is anyone actually working with South Florida Kings that have some locale info. associated with them? I plan on again adding these to our collection and figure to hear some info. from others of what they are working with along with their views.

Rich Hebron

i don't know of many that have done their own collecting AND have the wild phenotype you're looking for. Some of the people you might want to talk to:
-Bill and Kathy Love ( don't breed fla kings any more but did for a long time and I believe did their own collecting)
-Len Krysko and Ken Krysko, PhD. Ken did his masters and doctoral work on kings and could give you just about all the info you could want.
-Brian Barczyk and Doug Beard have done a lot with fla kings in captivity, and may be able to talk about their bloodlines
- there are alot of fla king guys on this forum such as brandon, keith, "crimson king"mark k.) et al., that are better versed than I am in locale data, etc. -drop those guys an email,they should be able to help out some.
dave b

Dave, thanks and yes, many you mentioned are people I am familiar with as well as communicate with time and again. I actually have a few Blotched Kings in my group from Ken with specific locale info and "did" have a few Brooksi (White Phase) from Bill in the 70's. Although I myself have seen many various Kings in the 70's that were WC it is my hopes to try to bring an open discussion to this forum of these natural types. Be nice see what others maybe able to add to the history of these beasts from so many years ago that for most are no longer worthy working with. Much preference these days by the masses going toward the morphs.

I bring this up now because it is my hope to again try to find some of those quiet people who may have done their best to preserve some of these herps in their collections. I once tried this for Eastern Chain Kings out of NJ as well as 2 other areas. Although they were commonly kept so many years ago, it is actually only on a rare occasion would one actually be able to find say Burlington County chains offered. I myself am quilty of selling off my groups a dozen or so years ago.

I did luck out after 2 years of searching finding Eastern Foxsnakes that originated from parents collected out of Lansing Michigan before they became protected. My luck took a turn for the better after I posted in a forum on ratsnakes. Came across several quiet Hobbyists that I coomunicate with regulary now about most of the natural type ratsnakes as well as pituophis from that era. Figured I would try it here as well. Maybe I can get lucky this year with these types as well.

Rich Hebron