Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As much as I like the kings I keep at the house, the best part of the hobby to me is experiencing the great outdoors and enjoying some of my favorite snakes in the wild. I only wish that I had bothered to photograph snakes years ago. Anyhow, a bunch of pics of some of the snakes we have seen and a bit about them. All the pics in this series will be of nigra found in Ky. This one found under a barn door in Oct.

An example of a a Ky tin field. This site has produced many snakes over the years.

A look at some natural habitat. Kingsnakes are plentiful here. To find them you must search through the habitat and look at natural cover.

Meade county kingsnake.

Gravid female found in Edmonson county on June 5th.

Trigg county.

Bullitt county.

Calloway county.

Meade county.

Jefferson county.

Nelson county.

Breckinridge county.

Edmonson county.

Hart county.

Calloway county.

Mammoth Cave National Park.

Another Calloway county king.

Edmonson county.

A beast of a king. Probably the largest that we have seen here.

And hope for the next generation! This hatchling found in MCNP in Sept.

Well, a few pics from me. How about you? Anyone else have any field pics to share? It would be great to see some of what you guys have been seeing! Phil

Phil,
Great pics as usual. The Edmonson Eastern Blacks are just beautiful.
Brad

Thanks Brad, you coming down this year? I would be more than willing to hit the field with you. Always good to hear from a fellow nigra fan. Phil

Phil,
I would really like to come to Kentucky. Just so busy lately with the newest addition to the family ("Mia"-14 months) and Blair (11 years old). Plus the fact that I started a new job this year with only two weeks total vacation will leave me little time. The vacation that I do get will have to divided between the family and perhaps a few days to myself. I will have to see. I can't rule anything out yet. I know that Peter Jolles wants me to head to the Sandhills in North Carolina this year to hunt for kings there, so.......
I do appreciate your offer and am definitely considering it. Will keep you posted.
What will you be breeding this year? Are the speckled's big enough yet?
Brad

The invites always open.

I should produce a number of kings plus Ky locale rats and corns along with Kankakee bulls. Phil

Oh I've got pics... But they all consist of those Thamnophis brachystoma and those deadly slug eating Storeria LOL.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.freewebs.com/badyear2005

Ain't nothing wrong with that. I like many of the lesser appreciated species like Diadophis, Storeria, Virginia and Tantilla to name a few. Phil

To me I would assume me finding a ringneck snake would be like you finding an amel nigra. lol. Just uncommon where I am... A couple years ago I found about 10, several were large by edwardsii standards, and one was at 25" or so.

The only Virginia I've seen was the albino one I had.

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.freewebs.com/badyear2005

Holy Freoles! Dang that is the coolest albino I have ever heard about. The common stuff does nothing for me. Now I hear about albino Virginia, dude thats something else! Phil

Yeah, it was an awesome snake. I think it was the 2nd of it's kind. Found in TX with 4 normals.

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.freewebs.com/badyear2005

Phil, nice set of pics to compare from, county to county, and baby to large adult. I like seeing the pattern from that very narrow band, like in the desert king, to the almost all black. I think you said the largest was 54", which reminds me of my largest Eastern milk I ever found. It was around 49" when found and reached 52" before I released it. Similar size.

I really don't have much in the way of kingsnake photos. I've mostly concentrated on Eastern milks (kingsnake) through the years and some desert kingsnakes from s. AZ the past few years. I've shown most of those pics I'll try to think of something, but hesitate to post anything other than a kingsnake, because they tend to get deleleted. I'm not even sure habitat pics are allowed on this forum...haha. I'll think on it.

Later....TC

Thanks Terry, the largest from last year was 57", though I strongly feel we have seen them in the 60" range a number of times. The next one we find in that size class we are going to snag up and take back to the zoo for a measurement under lab conditions. With our big calligaster they were able to administer isoflourine and safely knock the snake out so we could get our information without harming the snake.

Hey, I say post away! I love seeing your habitat pics. Just use Lampropeltis in your post instead of milk snake lol! We'll know what you are talking about. Phil

Beautiful Phil. I'd have to say the Breckinridge county nigra is my favorite in this series, with the Jefferson county specimen a close second. I'm always amazed how roubust & healthy these guys look. And that's a good thing.
I don't have any pics of Virginia Eastern kings to show in the wild, but I'm working on it LOL
I'm also interested in how far Nigra truly range into Virginia. What a wonderful thing it would be to find nigra deeper into Va. then what some of the range maps indicate. Sounds like a future project.

Steve

Thanks Steve, we have always noticed that the vast majority of snakes we see in the field are very healthy looking and robust. Makes me think the sick, weak and malnourished are quickly taken back into the food chain. Its kind of funny to me that a lot of folks that don't know any better have the notion that wild snakes are in generally poor health. Nothing could be further from the truth in my mind.

I wish you luck in your search for Va nigra. That would be an awesome find and we would love to have a pic of one on our black kingsnake website. Will and I found a county record for them in Harlin county Ky in 2003 which is very close to Va. Phil

...and done it Phil.. I'm comin' up.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

Your always welcome here in Ky Mark. Sean, Pierson and Chris came up last year from Florida and we had a blast. I love meeting my fellow herpers from abroad. Just let me know and I'm sure we'll have a good time. Phil

Great pics and beautiful Kings as usual Phil.

Keith
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Thanks Keith. Glad you liked! Incidently, I never tire of seeing all those cool pics of those bad arse easterns you post. Keepem coming! Phil

really great photos Phil, trade you a south GA/North Florida Suwannee King trip for KY nigra trip this coming spring?

Horridus

Sounds like fun. It would be cool to see a suwanee king. Have any pics of those? Something we don't see on here often.
Thanks, Phil