California Reptiles & Amphibians

Lampropeltis getula californiae - California Kingsnake, Pg. 1

Click on a picture for a larger view

Range in California: Red

Pictures and information about this snake and its habitat have been put on three pages.
Page 1, this page, contains pictures of the more common banded form of the California Kingsnake, plus a range map, information, and links to more information.
Page 2 shows some other naturally-occuring pattern types and aberrant patterns.
Page 3 shows some of the wide variety of habitats utilized by this snake.

Adult, San Diego County mountains

Adult, eastern Alameda County

Adult, coastal San Luis Obispo County

Juvenile, western Riverside County

Adult, with light speckling, Yolo County © John Stephenson

Adult, Yuba County

Adult, Lake County

Sub-adult, Kings County

Adult in defensive pose with everted
vent, coastal Monterey County

Adult, Inyo County desert

Adult, Riverside County desert
© Jeremiah Easter

The everted hemipenes of a male CA Kingsnake.
© Patrick Briggs

California Kingsnakes are powerful predators capable of eating other snakes almost as large as they are. Here you can see one eating a Gophersnake.
© Patrick Briggs Below is one eating a rattlesnake.

A striped phase California Kingsnake eating a juvenile Southern Pacific Rattlesnake in San Diego County. © Kimberly Deutsch

Go to Page 2 to see some other naturally-occuring pattern types and aberrant patterns of California Kingsnakes.

Go to Page 3 to see pictures of some of the wide variety of habitats inhabited by California Kingsnakes.

Description

Nonvenomous

Considered harmless to humans.

Size

Adult Lampropeltis getula are 30 - 85 inches ( 76 - 216 cm). California Kingsnakes do not reach that size, seldom exceeding 48 inches. Most commonly found at 2.5 - 3.5 feet in length. Hatchlings are about 12 inches long.

Appearance

Smooth, shiny, unkeeled scales. The head is barely wider than the neck. Highly variable in appearance. Most commonly seen with alternating bands of black or brown and white or light yellow, including the underside, where the light bands become wider. A striped phase with a white or light yellow stripe on the back occurs in coastal southern California. An unbanded phase with a dark belly and lateral striping occurs in the northern San Joaquin Valley and southern Sacramento Valley. A dark banded phase with a dark underside occurs in coastal Los Angeles County, some with a high number of bands. A desert phase occurs with dark black bands and narrow bright white bands. Some variants have much dark speckling in the light bands, others with much light speckling in the dark bands.

Behavior

Active during daylight in cooler weather and at night, dawn, and dusk when temperatures are high. When disturbed, generally not aggressive, but sometimes vibrates the tail quickly, hisses, and rolls into a ball, hiding the head and showing the vent with it's lining exposed. A powerful constrictor, coiling tightly around its prey. Immune to rattlesnake venom. A popular pet snake. Many custom color phases have been bred, including albinos.

Diet

Eats a wide variety of prey, including rodents and other small mammals, lizards, snakes (including rattlesnakes) turtle eggs and hatchlings, frogs, salamanders, birds eggs and chicks, and large invertebrates.

Reproduction

Lays eggs May through August.

Range

Found throughout California, except the damp redwood zone of the extreme northwest coast, and the northeast corner. Absent from high elevations in the Sierras, the Trinity Alps, and the Cascades. Rages north into southwestern Oregon, east into southern Nevada, southern Utah, southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico, and south through much of Arizona into Sonora, Mexico, and south throughout the Baja California peninsula.

Habitat

Found in a wide variety of habitats - forest, woodland, chaparral, grassland, marshes, farmland, ranches, deserts, and even brushy suburban areas.

Conservation Issues (Conservation Status)

None.

Taxonomy
Family	Colubridae	Colubrids
Genus	Lampropeltis	Kingsnakes and Milksnakes
Species	getula	Common Kingsnake
Subspecies	californiae	California Kingsnake
Original Description
Lampropeltis getula - (Linnaeus, 1766) - Syst. Nat., 12th ed., Vol. 1, p. 382 Lampropeltis getula californiae - (Blainville, 1835) - Nouv. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, Vol. 4, p. 292, pl. 27, fig. 1 from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
Meaning of the Scientific Name
Lampropeltis - Greek - lampros - shiny and pelta - shield - referring to the smooth, shiny dorsal scales characteristic of this genus getula - Latin - getulus area in N. Africa - possibly an error in location data californiae - of the state of California - referring to the range from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
Alternate Names
None
Related or Similar California Snakes
L. zonata - California Mountain Kingsnake R. l. lecontei - Western Long-nosed Snake C. o. occipitalis - Mojave Shovel-nosed Snake
More Information and References
Natureserve Explorer California Dept. of Fish and Game Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Bartlett, R.D. , & Alan Tennant. Snakes of North America - Western Region. Gulf Publishing Co., 2000. Ernst, Carl H., Evelyn M. Ernst, & Robert M. Corker. Snakes of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003. Wright, Albert Hazen & Anna Allen Wright. Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. Cornell University Press. Brown, Philip R. A Field Guide to Snakes of California. Gulf Publishing Co., 1997.

Conservation Status
The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game. This snake is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
Organization	Status Listing
U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA)
California Endangered Species Act (CESA)
California Department of Fish and Game
Bureau of Land Management
USDA Forest Service
Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List