WORLD PITUOPHIS WEB PAGE BY PATRICK H. BRIGGS

Distribution: Pituophis catenifer annectens:

Extreme southern Monterey County CA, along the Pacific coast and Catalina Island to about 20 miles south of El Rosario in northern Baja California, Mexico

Type locality: San Diego, California 

Hatching Pituophis catenifer annectens from parents of Ventura California.

Computer scanned print image photographed by Patrick H. Briggs 

 Photo by Patrick H. Briggs

Pituophis catenifer annectens San Diego Gopher snake

An obese indivdual from San Diego Courtesy San Diego Museum of Natural History

Photo by Patrick H. Briggs

A male adult San Diego Gopher snake from Ventura California (Arroyo Verde Park) 

A wild-caught two-headed  San Diego race Gopher snake from Santa Barbara California

 Photo by Patrick H. Briggs Courtesy Phil Brown of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

        Bonnie Mikelle (Briggs) Bair lifts up an adult female San Diego Gopher snake from the

         Cuesta College San Luis Obispo County Campus 320 miles north of San Diego California

Photo by Patrick H. Briggs

 Wild Collected (San Diego subspecies) Gopher snake from of San Luis Obispo County California

 Photo by Patrick H. Briggs

Captive bred San Diego Gopher snake from selected color morphs of San Diego County

 Photo by Patrick H. Briggs Courtesy Lloyd Lemke 

San Diego Striped Gopher Snake

 Photo by Patrick H. Briggs Courtesy Lloyd Lemke 

 Discovered crawling near Silverwood Lake in San Bernadino County North-East of Los Angeles California

This wild individual's pattern shows intergadation of Pituophis catenifer annectens x deserticola 

Photo by Jon Siess 

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 Photo below by Patrick H. Briggs

  Pituophis catenifer annectens San Diego Gopher snake from San Luis Obispo County collected as a young snake many years earlier with Sean and

Wendy McKeown in a creek at Cuesta College foothills (near its most northerly range of Monterey County which is north of the county it was actually collected)

 Below is another beautiful image of Pituophis catenifer annectens captured digitally in San Louis Obispo County March 10, 2013 by Bill Bouton

Here's another Pituophis catenifer annectens from Fort Ord Public Lands of its most northerly range of Monterey County, CA

Photo by John Sullivan

The neonate female San Diego Gopher Snake below was collected from the intergrade zone of Pituophis catenifer catenifer

and Pituophis catenifer annectens in the foothills of San Luis Obispo County California by Patrick Briggs on

an excursion with herpetologist Sean McKeown and his wife Wendy as they searched for red-legged frogs.

The image above is the same snake as an adult many years later. She shows color markings and pattern of Pituophis catenifer annectens.

Photo by Patrick Briggs

 Albino San Diego Gopher snake

 Photo by Patrick H. Briggs Courtesy Lloyd Lemke 

This subadult male below and the female above are San Diego Gopher Snakes found together in Ventura California where the Santa Clara River runs under the

Freeway 101. As both animals matured, they became a beautiful yellow-orange.

Photo by Patrick H. Briggs 

 Pituophis catenifer annectens from Baywood Park, south of Moro Bay in California an area with intergrades of catenifer x annectens.

Photo by Patrick Briggs courtesy Sean McKeown 

 Pituophis catenifer annectens (Striped Morph) 

Photo by Patrick H. Briggs Courtesy Lloyd Lemke

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/members/a-stotton-albums-pituophis.htmll 

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Cabazon, California San Diego race gopher snake: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpmckenna/3378920999/

San Diego race gopher snake in Andrew Molera National Park, (Big Sur) California: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynx38/7079428819/ 

 See the snake on the site: San Luis Obispo "Pacific form":

 As aforementioned, there are 2 to 3 rows of spots on the side of the Pacific Gopher Snake. However, the San Diego Gopher Snake (P. c. annectens) has 3 to 4 rows of smaller spots on their sides. The Pacific Gopher Snake's saddle spots do not have the barren characteristic as the San Diego Gopher Snakes do. Also, the second row of spots are much larger on P.c. catenifer compared to P.c. annectens. Finally, the Pacific Gopher Snake generally has more saddle spots than the San Diego Gopher Snake.[3]

 Below are 3 catenifer of two subspecies. The upper is catenifer annectens from San Luis Obispo County, the middle snake is catenifer catenifer from Kings County, and the lower snake is catenifer annectens from Ventura County. Images are from a slide by Patrick Briggs scanned to the computer and to this site.