Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't know if this is holbrooki or just getula. Caught her within 5 minutes of herping and nothing else for the 3 hour venture. Lowndes county Alabama

If your going to chase them, show some respect, and learn to hold them. Holding them behind the head is not good for the snake. Also this a captive forum, there are field forums, but they will jump on you way more then I did. I could have said that nicer, but your not being nice.

Thank you for the input! I'll work on that.

Hi, I don't know if your keeping them or not. If your not, your grabbing them and indeed cause their demise. Particularly rought handling like your pic expressed.

If your catching them, you may want to call your game and fish department and check of what you need to do that.
Also, you may want to research L.getula, has its going/gone thru lots of changes lately. By the old names, in your state you have three types of getula. Eastern kings, speckled kings, and black kings. The lastest revision may have made them all one.
So please respect the animals and their habitat. Return all AC to how you found it. to a point of resealing the edges.
Keep in mind, if you watch them, no harm will come to them, handling them can only cause harm, not that it will. That harm varies from irritation to death. With death being as high as 50%. I/we understand you really want to muck with these kings, but please consider, the kings do not want to be mucked with. Respest that

10-4

Do you mean getula as in Eastern chain kingsnake? Look at a picture, they look nothing like this. This is a holbrooki or Speckled kingsnake. Nice find man. I agree with FR. There's better ways of handling them.
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Well please forgive my ignorance. I just recently became fascinated with kings. I have a lot to learn.

I went through that too when I first started posting. I used to hold rattlesnakes behind their heads until people convinced me how stupid it was. On the field herp forums, the pictures of handling rattlers or a picture of them pined by a snake hook behind the head, get the worst responses, for good reason. I'm glad you're going out and looking for them in the wild. Those are always very important observations to make that will help you learn how to keep them in captivity. Always take note of moisture, temps, time of day and time of year.
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I had no idea I was doin it all wrong! I appreciate all the advice, and I will keep my herping posts elsewhere.

Glad to have helped. lol
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As far as I know field reports of kingsnakes are on-topic here. As long as they are about kingsnakes I think it's ok. Although I agree that it's not good to be too specific about exactly where you find them, due to the fact that you can't control who is reading these forums.

As far as catching and/or holding them, there is a school of thought amongst some experienced field herpers that too much distubance of wild herps can cause them too abandon their homes and thus become subject to predation, starvation, loss of reproductive opportunities, or other harms.

Aside from that, rough handling can also cause direct harm if the snake thrashes about or you hold them too tightly. If you must handle them it's best to sort of scoop them up and support them evenly with both hands and let them just crawl through your hands without too much restraint. Touching snakes on the head, neck or back(top) is especially disturbing to them as predators generally attack them from above.

Lastly, congrats on your find. That is a beautiful speckled kingsnake.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

Ah that is very informative* and interesting. Thank you so much for sharing. I didn't see anywhere that this forum was strictly cb either. I know there is a wealth of knowledge on these forums. I'd like to learn as much as I can whether it's herping or handling cb.

I remember when I first found this forum, the herping posts were some of the coolest. If you're out there finding Kings, please post pics, but there's responsible ways of doing it. Don't give exact locations, please if you do collect, do it legally and responsibly. Don't destroy habitat, and DON'T be one of those guys that thinks they have to pick up, collected, handle EVERY herp they see. If you're out to take pics only, in situ shots tame the cake. Happy herping.

reako45

Hi Aron, No one expects folks to believe anything. You sir, can easily test this. And I mean easily. Its standard behavior.
You live in Fla.? if you do, you know that Anoles will hang out in a chosen area, Take a sego palm. Watch it for a few days, or weeks, to make sure that's its home. Then catch it, take it in your house and put it back, the next day. Then observe what happens. Do this with ten anoles. Or you Cali guys, do it with a fence lizard. You can vary the time its held in captivity, down to catching it, take some pics they put it back. You can also repeat that event if one stays where you captured and released it. This will give you an idea of what happens to snakes and any other reptile. So please, test it.

Sorry, Aaron, not Aron. Also, sure enough, the kingsnake forum does not say what we are suppose discuss, yahoo . It does on the varanid and hognose forums.

I think that would be a good learning experience. I am in CA and I already believe, due to personal experiences. I now handle things very seldom, usually just to move them off a road.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

Nice looking King. Looks like holbrooki or a nigra X holbrooki "intergrade". I know alot of folks frown on collecting WC animals, but most of us got our start in this hobby/obsession/lifestyle w/ WC creatures. I know I did (still have the first King I ever collected = female Calabasas CalKing AND 2 of her daughters). If it's all legal pair that female up w/ a male from the same area. I know of a 3 of guys currently working w/ holbrooki (1 of my fave getula ssp. Used to have a Lemke line female). I don't know of anyone working w/ L.g. nigra, which seems to be under represented among getula enthusiasts. Congrats on your find.

reako45

Just to let you know, all of our kingnakes in Alabama are protected now too. This came as a total surprise to me not to long back. The state never even put anything out about this either, guess we are suppose to be clairvoyant lol. So i am just keeping a large group of Florida Kings from Bluerosy.

I'll chime in on not holding them behind the head as well. Unfortunately "gently restrain the animal behind the head" is what i picked up from various junk field guides and pet store herp books as a kid and did a lot of it as a naieve youngster.

I eventually started figureing things out for myself though and paid attention to what seemed to bother the animal and no longer did those things.

for smaller(

where's my post and pic?

why cant kingsnake get with the times and operate like every other forum on the internet??? geez

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Excellent, that's how you do it. How if you can create a balance between picking them up and just taking pics of them "in situ". Then both you and the snakes will be happy. And AND snakes always look way better in situ.

I just need to take some baby steps. I'd say I'm one more snake away from in situ.

hahahahahahahahaha Ok, maybe two or three away, but then, one will pop up that you just have to pick up. Which is ok, just leave as many as you can undisturbed. Remember, the ones you pick up, are the ones with the most likely change of harm. I think there are some songs about hurting the ones you love. Best wishes

That's a Speckled king. Nice looking one too. Love it!

reako45

The second one is mostly speckled. However, the speckles start to connect in horizontal lines along the back an inch or two apart; It may be an intergrade with nigrita or lg getula. It may be all three. I have no idea.