Pituophis catenifer annectens or San Diego Gopher snake
This individual from Ensenitas region of San Diego County California was wild caught 24 years ago and probably 3 years old when collected. Photo by Patrick Briggs, February 4, 2020 Courtesy Tom Derr
Pituophis catenifer annectens or San Diego Gopher snake
This individual from Ensenitas region of San Diego County California was wild caught 24 years ago and probably 3 years old when collected. Photo by Patrick Briggs, February 4, 2020 Courtesy Tom Derr
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
Pituophis catenifer annectens SAN DIEGO GOPHER SNAKE
Adult male Digital Image By Patrick Houston Briggs May 27, 2022
Below is a 2.5 foot juvenile San Diego County Gopher snake from the Lakeside Region. Pituophis catenifer annectens
Digital Image taken by Patrick Houston Briggs, February 4, 2020 Courtesy Shawn Bowman
Below is a climbing 2.5 foot juvenile San Diego County Gopher snake from the Lakeside Region. Pituophis catenifer annectens
Digital Image taken by Patrick Houston Briggs, February 4, 2020 Courtesy Shawn Bowman
A head study of the same individual as above. Image taken by Patrick H. Briggs Feb. 2020 Courtesy Shawn Bowman.
Below is a 2.5 foot juvenile San Diego County Gopher snake from the Lakeside Region. Pituophis catenifer annectens
Digital Image taken by Patrick Houston Briggs, February 4, 2020 Courtesy Shawn Bowman
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
!
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
c
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.