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I don't know about that..

What says the group?

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=6&de=766209
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Lloyd Heilbrunn

Palm Beach Gardens, Fl.

looks like a real nice yt to me. never heard of the new subspecies, 'golden cribo'. wasn't there a pair of paraguayan yt's in the classifieds about 10 day ago? those looked similar to these being offered now.......

I was fortunate enough to get to see three of these. I held one for several minutes and we took some photos. I have owned a black tail cribo in the past, currently own two Texas indigos, and grew up catching Easterns, but that does not make me an expert, especially on yellow tails which I have little experience with. What I can tell you from handling two of them is that they were Eastern indigo docile, but slimmer and yellow. The yellow was great on the heads and tails with some olive on the back. They had also eaten dead rats the night before which is always a welcome sight on a fresh import.

They are sure different looking than many of the pictures of yellow tails which I have seen and the couple of animals that I have seen in person. And they were consistent. They all had the same look give or take, and it wasn't the same look as the photos of yellow tails. Is that enough that they will likely be deemed a new subspecies or such. I am not one to say. I'd have to see more yellow tails.

What I can say, is they were a little thin from the trip, but readily eating, quite docile and beautiful. They would be a great way to lighten up a yellow tail project and an even better locality animal/potential new subspecies. I hope more females make it in and some of you guys breed them so that if I am in a better financial position in a few years, I could buy some babies off of you. Carrying one around reminded me of my childhood when I carried indigos around the farm that my brother and I would catch.

As someone who has held them, I look forward to hearing what others have to say. They are neat, regardless, and I wish that I had the money for at least a male right now.

Bryant King

I don't think anyone is saying that this is a new, named subspecies, but are rather suggesting that it ought to be. Such things happen with imported reptiles. A "new" animal comes in that is likely something new, even though it falls under an old name. The question is whether these yellow tails, are really yellow tails.

It has been a long time since I got my Biology degree (1997), but if I remember right, a subspecies is defined as a distinguishable variant of a species that is specific to a certain range with an intergrade occurring between it and other subspecies. The fact that all of these cribos out of Paraguay had the same general appearance, which varied from what we are use to seeing in typical yellow tails would suggest to me that, perhaps, there would be grounds for someone to define a new subspecies. There is much more that needs to be considered than a half dozen snakes coming in on a shipment, but it can be a good indicator of what might be there. At the very least, these would seem to be to yellow tail cribos at least what an Everglades rat snake is to a yellow rat snake.

Bryant King

Loyd, this looked questionable to me too. I don't know???? Would need to know the species name? Drymarchon ?what? hmmmm......??????

The nicest wc YT I ever had (Sunshine) was exactly what these snakes are. Same look, color, head shape. She bred to a wc male YT with a yellow head, black body and yellow tail and produced eggs. I believe these are YT's. Whatever the locale may be, they are very nice snakes.