Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've lived on this property for about 5 years now and the only kingsnake I've seen is one big black king that shows up about once a year. I haven't seen it for a long time, and I've been looking a lot lately. I got a grant to study some fossorial snakes this summer so I've been checking cover objects all summer and found very little up until now. It's been very dry but we've had a lot of rain lately due to the Hurricane so things are starting to come back out. So anyway, I flipped a big sheet of tin earlier to find this subadult black king. I'm really glad to see it because I guess that means we have at least one adult pair around here. It's bad news for my fossorial snake study since it looked well fed and I'm sure it enjoys earth snakes and worm snakes. I don't care though, I was just excited to see it and did my best to get some pics. They came out pretty bad since I was trying to handle it with one hand and work the camera with the other. Also, my camera lens fogged up, making things much more difficult. It was very placid though, just a little bit of rattling and some musk.

Hi Kevin,
Great picture of the West Virginia Eastern Black King.
Can you please E-mail me at: BLB1029@cs.com
I have a few questions for you concerning the West Virginia Eastern Black Kings.
Thanks,
Brad

That is a very nice looking snake. I wish I could see more pics of that one. Hopefully you'll see it around again. Thanks for sharing Tom Stevens

Nice! i have never seen a pic of a W.V. nigra. Wouldn't mind seeing more if you get the opportunity. Phil

Like I said, they're not that great but maybe I'll see it again and get some better shots.

Very cool, and thanks for the pics! Interesting find, for sure! My daughter just moved there, I guess I'll be making a trip to nigra falls! LOL!
Todd Hughes