Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After 7 years of effort we were finally able to produce Gibson's gopher snakes! They spent 93 days in the egg but finally emerged a few weeks ago and are already eating rat pinkies. They are offspring of legally obtained Antigua Guatemala locality founders. Much thanks to my good friend Danny for all his help in this accomplishment.

YES! YES! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
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Genesis 1:1

An amazing accomplishment! Congratulations! Are they endangered in their natural habitat? Also, 93 days! Holy Incubation, Batman! LOL!
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

Bob, there is very little known about this animal in the wild and only a few have ever kept them in captivity. They reside in a populated region of the world and in general snakes are not treated very well by the local population (as is the fate of most snakes). The motto of most Guatemalans is "A seen snake is a dead snake". There is no good data on how well local populations are doing in the face of agriculture and an ever growing number of humans and their automobiles. A young herpetologist, ecologist in Guatemala by the name of Danny Mazariegos has been working with this fascinating subspecies for several years and was the first person ever to captive breed and produce offspring. Danny and his father Rodger are working hard to create education opportunities for tolerance and conservation of wildlife in Guatemala but it is an up hill battle for sure.

Over the years several people have been able to import Gibson's gopher snakes on two occasions but both were unable to successfully reproduce them prior to mortality of the wild caught adults. With some great assistance from Danny we were able to sync the breeding schedule of our 1.3 unrelated captives and get copulation. It seems that they breed in the early winter. The clutch size appears to be much smaller than the nominate form P.l.lineaticollis.

I have been struggling with establishing this subspecies in captivity outside of Guatemala for over 15 years. I traveled to Guatemala with a fellow biologist and obtained the export permits after meetings with Guatemala's equivalent to our USFWS. This was not an easy task. We spent several weeks searching for animals and struggled with a shipping company to get them on a plane. Since 2007 we have worked with this group in an attempt to get successful breeding. With some major set backs and some genuine pure luck it is finally a reality. For Pituophis enthusiasts this is a major day in history!

That's the greatest Pituophis related news I've heard in years. Quite the accomplishment, my friend!
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I'm Dutch. Somebody shoot me.

john, job well done, you've re-set the bar again! i was just wondering, what if any color changes do you think may occur in the transition from hatchling to adult? i've only rarely seen pics of adults but they appear to be a blueish/gray when full grown? also, was it difficult to get them on rat pinks? would they normally not prefer rodents in the wild? thanks john & good luck.......

Dan, my sample size is small for sure with having only ever seen about 15 of these guys but what I notice is an almost champagne brownish ground with nice distinct black pattern. The hatchlings are similar to the adults but some have very faint light halos around the anterior broken dashes.

I generally never even try to feed hatchlings out of the eggs however my excitement over these hatchlings got the best of me and I put rat pinks in with them at about 1-2 days post hatching. To my surprise most of them ate immediately!

A friend of mine in Guatemala confided in me that once he saw a road kill gibsoni that he describes as being quite orange. Who knows, maybe I will get lucky!

:>]

thanks for the good word. It does not even feel real yet!

In 20 years guys will be going to shows looking at gibsoni in deli cups and have no idea how close it came to never happening!

Now forward to get permits from Mexico to import the three island forms yet to be known of in captivity! 16 of the 19 recognized Pituophis forms are now achievable!!! So close....

Congratulations!!!

Congrats. Thats cool that all the hard work payed off.

jason

I'm pretty excited for you and for everyone else that have waited to see this Pituophis form hatched. Congratulations on this fine accomplishment! Keep them coming. Keep the young Gibson's images coming, please.