Please don’t kill the good snakes

In the last few weeks there have been at least two cases of people killing rare California Mountain Kingsnakes, mistaking them for venomous coral snakes.

The western coral snake is native to portions of Arizona and Mexico — they are not found in California. Unfortunately, the non-venomous Mountain Kings are similar in color and can cause alarm with their startling appearance.

The body of a Mountain King is cross-banded like the common kingsnake but the bands are off-white, black and red.

One noticeable difference between the Mountain King and coral snake is the pattern of the colors. On the kingsnake, the black band borders the red; on the coral snake the yellow touches the red. A little