Southern California Snake...ID?

demicheru

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
May 26, 2005
Messages
94
Hey all,

while out bug-hunting in my neighborhood, I stumbled across this snake...almost stumbled onto him/her literally...it was sunning itself in my path...

i had brought a TV antena I thought would be good for coaxing centipedes, and lifted it with that into a container...it was really mellow and explored the container before balling itself up with its head in the middle...i am pretty sure i've read this is defensive...anyway, I don't know snakes well, but I've poked around californiaherps.com and found a couple candidates that are in this region and look similar, but I don't know what sort of colors/patterns are somewhat uniquely identifying, so I figured i'd post some pictures of my snake to see if anyone has any guesses.

the pics of my snake are at:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b8/demicheru/

the pics i've been comparing to are at:
http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/p.c.annectens.html

http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/p.c.deserticola.html

i'm leaning more towards the san diego gophersnake, p.c. annectens, but i really don't know. i've read that the band between the eyes is a pretty good sign that it is annectens, but again, i don't know much about snakes. this guy was caught in a pretty dry area near a small stream in the corner of Los Angeles/Riverside/San Bernadino counties...

i can take more photos if there is some identifying characteristic not in the pictures i've taken so far...

thanks for any guesses!
 
Last edited:

Beardo

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 13, 2004
Messages
1,518
Its definitely a Gopher Snake of some kind, more than likely San Diego.
 

Empi

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 18, 2005
Messages
542
Gopher snake for sure. Nice find! Those are awesome snakes!
 
Last edited:

demicheru

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
May 26, 2005
Messages
94
thanks for the help with the ID. I was hoping that it was a gopher snake, because I read that they are really friendly and easy to handle. Unfortunately, he's going to have to go back where i found him because it's a bit too expensive to care for adequately -at least 75 bucks for lamp, good hides, etc and i would have to feed it mice/rats, which the wife is pretty opposed to, and i don't think i could do it either...probably can't convince the snake to eat crickets and stuff for too much longer - and i would hate to keep something if i can't keep it right. It's too bad, too, because they appear to get up to 4 or 5 feet long, which would be fun. Hopefully i'll be able to hold it before taking it back, and i'll post some pictures to the photobucket in my first post...i didn't hold it before, because i wasn't positive that it wasn't a young rattlesnake...
 
Top