California Kingsnake

I caught it and put it in a cloth bag to keep it calm. It was one of those reusable shopping bags and it felt like quite an appropriate reuse of the bag.

Kingsnakes have a very unusual habit – they will hunt and eat venomous snakes including rattlesnakes. They have developed immunity to the venom. The “king” in their name comes from this habit. They are found throughout California. They are a sub-species of the Common Kingsnake which ranges over much of the USA.

I decided to release him near Sunol Regional Wilderness. When I opened the bag, it took some prodding to get it going. It slowly poked its head out of the bag and then glided smoothly out to its freedom. At first it wanted to head towards the road and I had to persuade it to go in the other direction.

Since it was not moving too fast, we were able to take this video.

You can find out more about Bay Area reptiles on our reptiles page. An earlier nocturnal encounter with a Kingsnake is in this post.

Cruising around a few nights earlier revealed a Grey Fox and  a Great-Horned Owl, but no snakes. We hypothesize that the reason for the reptilian absence was due to nighttime temperatures around 60F. The temperature during the drive this weekend, however, was close to a balmy 70F.

Sure enough, Mines Road (and possibly the weather) did not disappoint. About 10 minutes down the road from the Tesla Road turnoff, we found a little-over-a-foot-long Western Rattlesnake slowly crossing the road.

Western Rattlesnake on Mines Road

Further down the road, we encountered a snake we had been looking for for quite a while: a California Kingsnake, and a big one at that. This one cruised across the road fairly quickly, but we were still able to get some pictures.

California Kingsnake

Even further along the road, our tires almost screeched to a halt over a second California Kingsnake, this one much smaller and much more reluctant to leave the warm road (it eventually did with some help).

California Kingsnake

To top the night off, on the drive back, we found another Western Rattlesnake crossing the road, bringing our tally to four snakes total – two king and two rattle.

While seeing snakes on the road is exhilarating, the excitement is bittersweet. Snakes are constantly killed on roads, so if you can, please try and be careful when driving.