The Florida kingsnake is non-venomous and ranges throughout Florida.
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida recently announced a major expansion of its Dalton Discovery Center, adding many new interactive exhibits and galleries. This project will continue through this year, with an anticipated re-opening in early 2021.
Continuing its mission to engage and educate visitors, the Conservancy has added more educational videos, virtual tours, projects and programs that visitors can do at home or in their backyards. To see any of these videos, go to www.conservancy.org/virtual-learning. The videos are educational and fun and can be a source of ideas for ways for parents to explore the natural world and learn with their children.
While there, take a virtual tour of the Dalton Discovery Center, hosted by a Conservancy of Southwest Florida naturalist. You can join her for a walk through the various Florida ecosystems – land, swamp, shore and sea, and see the multitude of plants and animals that live there and share them.
First up, in the Florida uplands, is the Florida kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula), which she gently holds as he calmly coils around her hands. The Florida kingsnake is a fairly docile animal, not known to bite unless provoked or threatened. Very secretive, it is not a snake you will likely see when out for a stroll.
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has announced a monumental $4.5 million renovation and expansion of its Susan and William Dalton Discovery Center. The Nature Center will remain closed during construction with the reopening anticipated in early 2021. Follow The Conservancy of Southwest Florida on Facebook.
It is a member of the family Colubridae, which is the largest snake family, and members are found on every continent but Antarctica. There are three types of kingsnakes found in Florida — the Florida kingsnake, the Eastern kingsnake, and the Eastern Apalachicola lowlands kingsnake. While these three varieties of kingsnakes can be differentiated based on color and banding, they are subspecies, and can interbreed where their ranges overlap. Kingsnakes are large, generally growing to between 3 and 5 feet in length, but specimens as long as 6 feet have been found. The Florida kingsnake is non-venomous, and ranges throughout Florida; in fact, it is found nowhere else but Florida.
The kingsnake will feed on other snakes and reptiles, amphibians, birds and bird eggs. Like most other reptiles, it lays eggs, breeding in the springtime and laying as many as 30 eggs. These hatch in late summer and the newborns can be as long as 8 inches.
Kingsnakes are truly the masters of their kingdoms, as they not only can eat other snakes, including smaller kingsnakes, but are able to attack, subdue and eat venomous snakes like the diamondback rattlesnake, as they are immune to their venom.
Plan a virtual visit to the Dalton Discovery Center and take a tour — you can see and learn about our Florida kingsnake, and many other animals, plants and ecosystems, and when the time comes for an in-person visit, stop by to see him and say hi, as he effortlessly glides about his home.