Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I visit this forum often but rarely post. I had an experience yesterday that I had to share. While I have kept many species of snakes over the years, including Cape and San Diego Applegate Gophers, I do not currently own any snakes. However, I do keep my eyes open for snakes when I hike in the area around my home. I live in Ramona, California, in San Diego County, and gopher snakes are fairly common here though I have not seen many since the Cedar Fire nearly two years ago. Anyway, about two weeks ago my nine-year-old son came running into the house yelling “Snake! Snake!”. I grabbed my snake stick and ran out into my backyard. Sure enough, up on the hill was the largest San Diego Gopher that I have seen in the field. She was between five and six feet long and about as wide as a tennis ball at her widest. I have seen many snakes near her length, but never one as fat. She looked like a boa at mid-body. She also had a stubbed tail that was quite noticeable. I caught her and put her in a Rubbermaid container to show my wife and daughter when they got home. Once I showed her to them, I released her near where I found her. Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. Again my son comes running in the house yelling “Dad, there’s a snake in the neighbor’s yard!” (this kid is gonna be some herper). I again run outside up to the fence between the yards. He told me that he saw the snake under the neighbor’s orange tree. It was very difficult to see because there is a lot of native vegetation between the fence and the tree. As I was looking over the chain link fence, I noticed a Scrub Jay squawking and flitting around, clearly agitated. I looked down to where the jay had landed and saw the front one-third of a large gopher snake. She was cruising right toward us through the fence. As she cleared the brush, I saw her tail and sure enough she was the same stub-tailed snake I caught before. However, she was not alone. Riding along on the back one-third of her body was a large (~five feet), obviously male gopher snake. Having bred these animals before, I can spot an amorous male snake when I see one. I was amazed since I had never seen this behavior in the wild. My wife joined us to watch the snakes. We were quietly looking down as the snakes cruised within a foot of us, but the jay was still upset. As I looked up to see what the jay was doing what did I see but ANOTHER large male gopher snake in hot pursuit of the female’s trail. He was only about five feet behind the first two snakes and gaining. I was absolutely astounded. We all watched as the three snakes disappeared into the ice plant. I still can hardly believe it. I mean, you hike around for hours flipping rocks and wood looking for just one snake and here right in my backyard were three! Now I am hoping that come autumn I see many more small gopher snakes in my backyard.
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J Elliott

Very cool story... I grew up and lived in San Diego for 27 years and remember catching gophersnakes, California kingsnakes, and Rosey Boas... I live in Texas now but I enjoyed my days of herping in San Diego... Again, that is a very cool story and I hope you get to see the potential offspring of this amazing pit... Try to post some pics one day...

Eric

and that will be awesome if you find offspring later in the year. If you could find the "nesting spot" for the female it would be interesting to know what type of spot she chose to deposit her eggs but I am sure that would be a one in a million chance. Still, even the entrance to her lair would be interesting to discover. Tom Stevens

i don't see that much action at the zoo. great story, thanks!