Posted by:
peters
at Mon May 10 22:18:42 2010 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by peters ]
Well as I said it was caught near Ventura in a euceliptus tree windbreak at the border of an orange grove. As I remember it was about 10 to 12" long. I had no idea what it was. I kind of ignored it for quite a while except to feed it quite a bit. After it grew a bit I started examining the sheds and counting scales [keeled].The count was right between king and gopher. I sent sheds to couple of friends and they agreed. I took it to San Diego Zoo and the curator, Jim Bacon just glanced in the bag and said it was an abherant cal king. On the way home I stoped at Western Zoological. They agreed with me and said they would put it on their price list at $200 and split it with me.I After Jim Bacon saw it on the list he thought that it might deserve a closer look. They took a blood sample and it too fell right between king and gopher. So they ended up purchasing it. Funny part was that I was going to ask Jim $75 for it [extra 25 for me].Years later I asked Jim about what had happened. He told me that they had bred it to a king or a gopher, I can't remember which, but had lost eggs. They were going to try again the following year but the hybrid died. I presume that is in the pickle collection at the zoo. I will try to find out if anyone feels it's important. After moving to the S.D. area in '84 I was going to renew my aquaintance with Jim at the zoo but he passed away before I had the chance. Hope this info is what you want. theOLDherper
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RE: Hybreds ? - peters, Mon May 10 22:18:42 2010