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

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I'm constantly amazed at the stupidity on the boards. Congrats. You win dumb arse of the day. They are a beautiful snake that is threatened. Like the King, they will eat venomous snakes like the copperhead and rattlesnake. I've seen some really cool pics on this board of absolutely beautiful species, and I was lucky enough to hold one once. Really should educate yourself.

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He's joking, dickhead

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that is an eastern king snake.

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That's what I thought at first glance. Zoom way in. It's a shitty photo of a broad banded watersnake.

yes. Its a broad-banded water snake.

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looks like a King to me

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It's not though. Zoom in on its head. The photo is washed out, and the snake appears to have a darker pattern, but it's there if you zoom in.

Also, the eastern black kingsnake doesn’t have bands, except maybe bands made of spots when they're juveniles. They're basically a speckled kingsnake with less speckles. There are no banded L. getula in LA.

I stand corrected. You've been doing this much longer than I have. I'm still learning.

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I stand corrected. You've been doing this much longer than I have. I'm still learning.

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Dude, I did the same thing. The photo makes it look like an obvious eastern king. That's what my original post said too. But, when he said it was in LA, I knew something had to be amiss, so I went back and really looked at the photo. I couldn't even see the head the first time I looked at it.

Guys, can you get as close to the head as possible when taking snake ID pics? Much of being able to properly identify a snake is seeing the shape of the head. It would also be a big help if you could get it to open its mouth and flick its tongue several times. TIA.

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?

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Guys, can you get as close to the head as possible when taking snake ID pics? Much of being able to properly identify a snake is seeing the shape of the head. It would also be a big help if you could get it to open its mouth and flick its tongue several times. TIA.

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I see what you did. I would also like to add that they provide DNA samples also.

So if I observe a king snake near the boundary of the speckled and black home ranges, would it be safe to identify it based solely on what side of the river I am on (assuming I am not much South of Baton Rouge)? Because I have seen snakes my entire life that I called a speckled, but I live East of the Mississippi River. I guess I have been wrong all these years. TIL