California Kingsnake

The California kingsnake is a subspecies of the common kingsnake and is found in all but some small portions of California, the southern half of Nevada, a small portion of southern Utah, all of Arizona, except for eastern Arizona, a small piece of southern Oregon, and a ways into Mexico. Hatchlings are about 12 inches long and adults can get to about four feet long. The first time I saw California kingsnakes I saw three in short order. We were with a group of youth on the Havasupai Indian Reservation in northern Arizona staying at the Havasu Campground in early September 1992. The first snake we saw, below, was near Havasu Falls. It was a beautiful glossy black and white which was very distinctive in the green grass near the falls.

All three snakes we found looked very similar, with dark black and white stripes.
The next kingsnake we found was in the Havasu Campground, see below. Each one had a small white dot on the head.

This one had stripes that connected on the underside through the belly, but at least one did not have connecting stripes.

The third kingsnake we found was about a half mile up Havasu Creek from where it empties into the Colorado River. This was my first trip to Havasupai and I've been back about four times and never seen another kingsnake there.

They are widely variable in appearance, although the ones I've seen have been consistently of two types. The northern Arizona version which is very glossy black and white, and the Redlands

area version which has more choclately brown and yellow stripes. Our local snakes do seem to vary in terms of how dark their dark stripes are and they also are not as glossy as the Arizona versions. The kingsnake below was caught in Redlands.

The next kingsnake was captured up Whitewater Canyon and has distinctive yellow bands and three marks on the top of the head.

The next kingsnake was a pet for awhile, named "Tide" after the laundry detergent, because Judy found the snake one evening in the warm sheets she'd taken from the dryer. She initially thought it was a fake plastic snake of the boys and let out a shreik when she realized it was alive.

We've found a number of kingsnakes over the years, from inside our house, to our neighbors yards, to Overcrest Street on the way to Church. I've found them to be voracious eaters, about the complete opposite of the long-nosed snakes I have never been able to get to eat. Here a kingsnake eats an alligator lizard.

This kingsnake is eating a shovel-nosed snake. It got it all the way down and then threw it up.

This kingsnake is eating a glossy snake. The kingsnake is immune to rattlesnake venom and I've seen pictures of several different kingsnakes eating rattlesnakes.

There are California kingsnakes that have stripes and weirdly contorted markings that are very unusual. Here is a link to some pictures. The next picture is of a kingsnake in the canyon behind our home.

The ease with which they eat and their generally mellow nature (although I have seen several that were pretty nasty, attempting to bite) make them popular pets.

In May 2011 I was taking some trash out to our garbage can in the evening and found a good sized king snake

in our driveway, next to our garage door. It was shaking its tail in a fake rattle, like a rattlesnake, something I've seen gopher snakes do before, but not something I recall king snakes doing. 

I kept it for a couple of weeks, took it to our fathers and sons outing and let the little boys hold it, 

then let it go in our yard on a Saturday afternoon. When I let it go, it got in a defensive posture, 

and fake-rattled again, raising its head as if to strike, 

although it never did strike.