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Check out the chaining on this speckled... I am going to post a sibling below for comparison. They are more variable than I expected both in patter and color. This is the frist year breeding these guys for me.

Tom Anderson

Most of the siblings look more like this with narrower bands and no chaining.

...do you happen to know any history behind the parents that produced those. I have seen several populations throughout their range that produce offspring with a great degree of banding like that. Not to under-rate the snakes unique appearance, because it is a very fine specimen. I would just be curious to know where they originated.

That snake looks alot like a Kansas locale that I have posted before.

The female is a non-locality snake that I got at a pet shop where I used to work about 8 years ago. She is completely speckled now with one yellow speck per scale. She was slightly banded as a baby but the bands did not connect in a chain pattern. She became gravid last year without a male around and was eggbound. This year, Brad Lee was nice enough to let us breed her to one of his locality males... Kansas or LA... Maybe Brad can chime in here or I will get back to you. The adult male did have the slightest banding pattern.

This is the frist year I bred speckleds, and was really surprised at their variability. Some are so busy that the banding is almost invisible, and one of them has a 3 scale wide chain pattern. It is more visable from the side, but they are so damn spastic it's hard to get a good picture.

Thanks for the response.
Tom Anderson

OK, that's great to hear. in the last few months I have been trying to assemble as much info on holbrooki as I can. They interest me WAY TOO MUCH! I'm trying to get a good knowledge of the plasticity that is seen among locale populations. No one can help me better in that department than the guys that catch and breed them yearly. Thanks for the info.....and tell Brad to chime in more often. I like hearing from him.

Brad is the the middle of a move right now, but when he gets back in the swing of things, you whould definately get up with him. He has a great collection of locality speckled pictures.... and some beautiful specimens to boot.

ta

Lincoln Cty, Kansas.

Ok, that would make sense. My female is from Russell County, Kansas. Those two counties border eachother.

Here is the Kansas locale I was referring to. They have very similar patterns.

yep! That's definately the chain pattern I was refering too. Beautiful snake! Thanks for the picture. As they grow, does that pattern fade and become replaced with speckling?

Tom, from my experience with the local banded specks we see here, they seem to lose a large degree of the banding as they reach maturity and gain a speck in every scale. But the bands will always be present to some degree.

WOW! Thats has some very bold patterns. Is that a current shot ? How is it looking now if no.

Keith
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Very nice looking snake Tom. Im starting to appreciate the Holbrooki more and more.

Keith
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They are beautiful animals and I am just now starting to appreciate the variablity among them. Color, pattern, and ventral color and pattern are all different from snake to snake - and just from one clutch.