re: Snake ID. King snake of some kind? Family member took pic while out jogging.

I’ll try to clear up some of the confusion regarding what kingsnakes are found in Louisiana…



The blue area along the East coast is the range for Eastern kings, sometimes called chain kingsnakes.





The yellow area running across Alabama, Mississippi, and southeastern La. has what are now called Eastern Black kingsnakes. Most that are called Eastern blacks look basically like speckleds, and most old school snake guys think it’s ridiculous to call them Eastern blacks. But genetically, they are their own species, separate from speckled kings.

Here are two La.-caught Eastern blacks..





Now the second one is literally the only king I’ve caught in my lifetime where I’d concede that it might be different than a speckled. But even that one, unless I’m talking to a hardcore herper, I’m calling it a speckled.

Likewise, this was caught by an Alabama herper:



…and is technically an Eastern black, not a speckled. Ridiculous.

The pink area is your true genetic speckled kings, covering the western half of La. There are some truly stunning speckleds that have literally a speck on every scale. But for the most part, if you catch a king in La., you can’t identify it “correctly” without asking what parish it was caught in.



That being said, the snake in the OP has been correctly identified as a broad-banded water snake. Though since the pic isn’t the best, I could see someone mistaking that one (they vary greatly in pattern) as an Eastern king…just not in Louisiana…though we have Eastern black kings…but they look like speckleds. That clear things up?