- KING OF THE KENTUCKY FORESTS - Photos and Story by Phil Peak |
|||||||||||||||||||
 A Trigg Country Specimen |
What is causing it is uncertain. One thing is for sure though. Throughout many areas in which the common king snake was formerly abundant, its numbers are dropping. Fire ants, habitat fragmentation, wanton slaughter, what ever the case may be it is clear that King Snakes are in peril in parts of their huge range. In Kentucky however, I am quite pleased to say this is simply not the case. The King Snake in Kentucky is a common to abundant species. Indeed this is a snake that at times can even be seen crawling through my yard in Metro Louisville. Yet as common and widespread as they may be, to me, there is no such thing as "just another king snake". If I was to choose, I would select this snake as our state reptile. I believe one would be hard pressed to find a better choice to represent our great commonwealth. | ||||||||||||||||||
| It should be clear to the reader by now that I have a strong bias when it comes to King Snakes. I admit this freely. Seldom has so many attributes come together in the natural world to create such a wonderful creature. Power, beauty and a majestic presence melded together to produce the perfect machine. The following will be a selection of accounts of time spent in the field with these wondrous beast along with some observations that have been made along the way. | |||||||||||||||||||
The King Snake of Kentucky is known commonly as the Black King snake, Lampropeltis getula nigra. The Black King snake has a relatively compact range as compared to other getula complex members and is found roughly in those areas east of the Mississippi river and west of the Appalachian Mountains . From there they occur in the middle states with Kentucky and Tennessee being the heart of their range. They extend into parts of some other states including Indiana, Illinois, Ohio , Alabama , Georgia and the very western most section of Virginia . Of all the King Snakes, the Black King is perhaps the least studied by researchers and the most under appreciated by hobbyists. Why this is not readily apparent to me. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Maybe this is because this is the King Snake that I am most familiar with and I have had the luxury of seeing specimens of this subspecies that most other King Snake aficionado’s have not. What ever the case, I have nothing but the highest regard for this King of the Kentucky forests. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Please indulge me as I detail a few accounts of some of these experiences. According to the literature (Peterson field guide Conant and Collins) the record size for the Black King snake is 58". This has been a subject of many a discussion between Will and myself. Every year we see snakes that obviously exceed this mark by a fair margin and finally in 2005 we have the intention of documenting this in the field. Will has acquired a set of measuring tubes and we anticipate confirming this notion soon. The new record should easily exceed five foot if we are able to see some of the same snakes we found last year. It has been our observation that certain locals value the king snake as an effective predator of venomous species of snakes, thus their lives are spared. It’s not always that there is great love for the king snake, but given the choice these rural folks would rather tolerate the mighty king’s presence than to | |||||||||||||||||||
be subjugated to the native pit vipers that are prevalent in these areas. This being the case, King Snakes often have long and successful lives in the fields and forests that they frequent. It's no small wonder that Will and I seldom see other species of snakes at sites where King Snakes are the dominant species. I recall a site we visited last year with high expectations in Trigg county Kentucky. This was a site not far from the eastern shores of Lake Barkely on a wooded slope. Under the first sheet of tin we found an enormous king snake that field measured at 58" with a few bends of the body not included. It was no great surprise to us that not another snake was found under the other twenty sheets of tin that were scattered throughout this hill side. This well fed specimen was obviously king of his domain!.... |
|
||||||||||||||||||
 Calloway County Speciman |
Among the various projects that Will and myself have been involved with over the last several years have been two in particular that involve our native corn and pine snakes. The expression on Will's face when we uncover one of these big King Snakes from under a sheet of tin that has recently eaten a large snake dinner is priceless! One site in particular in the cave region happens to have some of the largest King Snakes that we have seen anywhere. The look a large king has when it has recently feasted on another snake is unmistakable. One King Snake we found was obviously stuffed to capacity with snake. Big around as a beer bottle and perhaps five foot long. Could this be the elusive pine snake we have been searching for? Will, with considerable patience contented himself with photographing this beast while I was simply in awe of one of the finest snakes I have met.... | ||||||||||||||||||
