Kingsnake

Genus Lampropeltis

Reptile

Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing kingsnakes. Be sure to slither over that subscribe button before leaving, and thank you to.. uhm... ekwkhehkhngeb ehngejerkhbghw for today’s request. If you’ve heard of kingsnakes you’ve probably also heard of milk snakes. All milk snakes are kingsnakes but not all kingsnakes are milk snakes - it’s like the square and the rectangle. Milk snakes received that common name because of a myth that they would suck milk from a cow’s udders until she was dry, but that’s utterly absurd.

Kingsnakes in general belong to a genus with a name meaning something along the lines of “shiny skin” which is appropriate for a such a diverse group of serpents. There are at least ten species of kingsnakes with dozens of subspecies. They come in a vast range of colors with some even looking like other venomous snakes. This is a scarlet kingsnake who is not venomous, and this is a coral snake who is highly venomous. There’s a rhyme to help people make a distinction between the two which goes: “Red touches yellow, kill a fellow. Red touches black, friend of Jack.” At least, that’s how we learned it growing up, was it different for you? Though this rhyme is cute, it can also be misleading. There are banded snakes present in Mexico, such as the variable coral snake pictured here, who do not follow the rules of this rhyme. The best method to take when encountering snakes in the wild is to just leave them alone - they’re working hard out there to keep rodent populations down.

Unfortunately, snakes do have a bad rep, and people often mess with them when discovered. Kingsnakes, especially because they can be misidentified as venomous, are often killed by ill informed humans. The irony is that kingsnakes actually love to eat the very venomous snakes the people are trying to eradicate, so in turn those people are making it easier for the venomous snakes to survive by killing off the venomous snakes’ competition...I’m rolling my eyes.

Kingsnakes eat cottonmouths, copperheads, and rattlesnakes along with rodents, lizards, eggs, birds, and more. This range of diet can be attributed to their wide range of distribution. Kingsnakes are some of the most widespread snakes in North America and they can be found from southern Canada all the way down into southern Ecuador. They inhabit prairies, woodlands, swamps, urban settings, mountainous regions, even islands. In fact, some of the island species are threatened with extinction because they’re caught for the pet trade. Snakes in general prefer to run away from a fight and kingsnakes are no exception, but if they’re forced into a quarrel, they’ll release musky odors and sometimes even their bowels to try and escape. When they are caught off guard, kingsnakes may be taken by birds of prey, skunks, raccoons, foxes, bobcats, and even each other, though they’ll pretend to be rattlesnakes to try and ward off these predators by quickly shaking their tails.

In colder areas, kingsnakes hibernate in the winter. In spring, some species will mate in their hibernation dens before emerging while others will emerge and males will have fights over females. The winner gets the girl, and the female will lay approximately ten eggs about two months later in a den or empty burrow. The eggs are left to incubate for about two months and the babies are on their own from birth. Once they reach about half their adult size, which can be anywhere from one to more than six feet (30 to 183 centimeters) depending on the species, they’ll be ready to have babies of their own. How long they can live in the wild is largely unknown, though in captivity they may enjoy upwards of three decades of life.

For more facts on kingsnakes, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.