Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a special fondness for Mojave specimens. Those sharp, crisp colors and extra wide bands are some of Americas finest!They also seem to be especially confident and eager to explore.

(One private Web site in CA has photos of a Mojave kingsnake at Mara Oasis in Joshua Tree NP that crawled right up to 4 hikers who were watching him with a flashlight and smelled their boots!)

I watched mine once while he explored his 60-gallon desert vivarium - for over 3 hours! I've never seen a more active snake. He likes to climb even more than my prior snakes.

He stopped musking his first week home. It only took him less than 2 weeks to become quite calm & trusting. When I reach for him, unlike most snakes who flinch or pull away from my finger, he raises his head to meet my finger, wondering what it is!

Quite the gem. Please share your stories of Mojave-locale kingsnakes. I'm especially interested in behavior.

I used to find desert cal kings with a very high band count just east of California city and also near Ridgecrest in the Mohave area. These were thin bands and were very unusual looking compared to what we see in the hobby today.

Most of the low band/wide white bands seem to come from the lower desert near Joshua tree. Most all of the wildcaught specimens I have seen had some yellow on the sides. It was selective breeding that got rid of the yellow sides that made for pure white bands that we see in captive bred specimens. Unfortunaltly I believe most of these were of mixed locales to reach the cleanest white bands.

Anyone else find nice wide white banded cali's in the wild?

Interesting comments, thanks. I've been to the Mojave Desert, mostly the Joshua Tree area, but have never seen Kingsnakes anywhere in the wild. (Damn!)

A Cal King link (below) shows examples of snakes from eastern Riverside County & Inyo County on the eastern side of the Sierras - not far from Ridgecrest.

1) Notice the extra WIDE bands of the Riverside specimen. Yes, he has yellow on his sides.

2) Notice the Inyo specimen. Extra crisp black & white colors, somewhat wider bands.

You're probably correct in the the "50/50" specimens sold today are likely hybrids from at least 3 locales:

Joshua Tree
Las Vegas area
San Felipe, Baja

http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/l.g.californiae.html

Forgot it when I posted last message, sorry.

Breeding from three different locales DOES NOT make it a hybrid.
They are still cal kings just not locale specific ones.
A HYBRID is like crossing a calking to a cornsnake.............
A cross is like breeding a calking to a Holbrooki..........
Breeding to like snakes from down the road does not make them hybrids at all.
John Lassiter

By the way nice pics............