Drew and Shannon saw the snakes struggling at around 11 AM in near Towne Pass. Stacy Holt with Death Valley National Park sent me the above six photos which were taken on 8/28/13 by National Park Service Employees Drew Kaiser and Shannon Mazzei. Here you can see one eating a Gophersnake.Īdult eating a lizard, Santa Catalina Island. © Liz SamperiĬalifornia Kingsnakes are powerful predators capable of eating other snakes almost as large as they are. This striped California Kingsnake is eating a San Diego Alligator Lizard in San Diego County. Sacramento County adult eating a juvenile Northern Pacific Rattlesnake. © Kim RoweĬalifornia Kingsnakes Feeding and PredationĪ striped phase California Kingsnake eating a juvenile Southern Pacific Rattlesnake in San Diego County. This mating pair was observed on May 8th in a backyard in Sacramento County. (It's from a YouTube video which has been removed.) This picture shows what appear to be two males in combat in May in San Diego County. These three short videos show the same two snakes depicted in the stills above.
(If you know for sure what the behavior indicates, let me know.)
They don't appear to be two males in combat because they are not wrestling each other very aggressively, but that is also possible. I'm not sure exactly what they are doing, but I believe that they are a male and a female in courtship behavior preliminary to copulation. These two adult California Kingsnakes were found on a back porch at the end of April in San Diego County. The snake also released a foul-smelling odor.Ĭalifornia Kingsnake tracks on a dusty road in San Diego County.ĭark brown and cream juvenile, western Riverside County The everted hemipenes of a male California Kingsnake. When encountered in th field, most wild California Kingsnakes don't often become defensive by assuming a threatening posture and striking, as this one did.īlack and cream adult, El Dorado County © Richard Porterīlack and cream adult, Santa Cruz County © Zachary Limīanded adult with pinkish brown and creamy yellow coloration fromĪdult from the Los Angeles County coast with a high number of bands (40) © Don Sterbaĭesert-phase adult, Riverside County © Emile BadoĪdult from the Western side of the Santa Cruz Mountains, San Mateo County
Santa Clara County mountains © Holly Lane © Ivan Vershyninĭark brown and pale yellow adult, Alameda Countyīlack and white desert phase adult, San Diego County desertĪ brown and cream banded morph adult from theĭiablo Range in Santa Clara County © Holly LaneĪ slightly faded Brown and Cream banded morph from the Pale brown and yellow banded morph adult, Orange County. shows some of the wide variety of habitats utilized by this snake.īrown and cream adult, Santa Clara County © James Roweīlack and cream adult, San Diego County mountainsĪdult, desert phase, Riverside County desert © Jeremiah Easterĭark brown and pale yellow adult, Yuba County illustrates naturally-occurring aberrant morph California Kingsnakes. , this page, includes pictures of the more common banded form of the California Kingsnake, a range map, a species description and natural history information, references, and links to more information. Pictures and information about this species and its habitat have been put on three pages: