Don:

That's very interesting. The reference given for distribution of davidi near the western end of the DMZ in North Korea was the following article:

Szyndlar, Z. (1985): Occurrence of Elaphe davidi (Sauvage, 1884) (Serpentes: Colubridae) in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. - The Snake, Nittagun, 17 (2): 163-167

Now since Comrade Szyndlar probably had to hand over his collected specimens to the North Korean government and since food is usually in short supply there I imagine they've already been eaten. But if there are any on the South Korea side of the border then possibly Schulz is justified in hoping that they are to be found. But then again maybe he's wrong. I hope he's right.

As for the picture at that link I provided, it resembles the photo of davidi found on Plate 7 of Old World Species in Schulz' "A Monograph of the Colubrid Snakes of the Genus Elaphe Fitzinger". The shape of the head seems a little different and this animal is pretty well fed compared to the animal in Schulz but the overall look is quite similar. That snake was from Shaanxi Province, China. Where the photo on the link comes from is open to question. I notice that some of those photos are borrowed from Schulz' website but without acknowledgement. So maybe the davidi was borrowed in an equally casual fashion from another legitimate source. But that doesn't make it improbable that it is davidi (just makes it harder to confirm it).

Best regards and Merry Christmas
John

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