Common Kingsnake

Authored By: Wilson

Lampropeltis getula
Common Kingsnake

KING

Status

The Common Kingsnake is common throughout most of its range. However, many populations in peninsular Florida apparently have declined significantly (Moler, per. comm).

Description

The Common Kingsnake is a large (91–208 cm), smooth-scaled, black snake with a white or yellowish chainlike pattern. The venter is checkered with yellow and black. Seven subspecies are recognized.

Distribution

This species ranges from southern Pennsylvania to Florida, and westward to California. It is apparently absent from the Rocky Mountain states.

Habitat

Lampropeltis getula occurs in most terrestrial habitats. These snakes are secretive, often hiding under surface cover, and found around old buildings, garbage dumps, stumps, logs, boards, and sawdust piles. Optimal habitats include edges of floodplains, bottomland hardwoods, bushy stream and swamp margins, open farmland and most pine types, especially the coastal flatwood habitats.

Special Requirements

The Common Kingsnake requires fairly open-canopied woods or fields with abundant shelter or refuges, such as stumps and surface cover.

Breeding Habits

The Common Kingsnake usually breeds in early spring and deposits a clutch of 3–24 eggs during the summer months.

Food Habits

The Common Kingsnake is a powerful constrictor. Its diet consists of snakes (including venomous species), small turtles, turtle eggs, lizards, small mammals, birds, and, on occasion, amphibians.

Management Suggestions

This species is common in a variety of different habitats. Therefore, specific management measures are not thought necessary at this time. It should be noted, however, that the species apparently does best in areas with periodic burning, a fairly open canopy, moist soil, and abundant stumps, logs, and surface cover.