I am sure all of you are nursing sore tummy’s today from all of the candy you ingested last night. I hope you and your families enjoyed dressing up and getting free candy. Although Halloween is over, I figured we would continue with the scary Wild Facts and what could be more frightening than the Common Kingsnake? Okay, so there are probably a few other animals out there that are a little scarier but that doesn’t take away from the impressiveness of today’s animal. So grab your gloves and a hat because we are heading to Mexico to look for our slithery specimen. By the way, these snakes are also native to the good ol’ US of A so this is another travel option if you don’t feel like visiting Mexico right now.

Although this snake is called the “Common” Kingsnake, I haven’t found a whole lot of characteristics that are too common with this creature. For starters, all 8 sub-species have a wide variety of colours and patterns making them some of the most fashionable snakes out there. The Common Kingsnake has a larger wardrobe than I do with their favourite pieces of clothing coming in red, orange, yellow, tan, black and white. All of these colours are then mixed in with a variety of patterns such as bands, patches, rings, stripes, spots and of course speckles. Needless to say, it is pretty difficult to identify these snakes based solely on their colour and patterns.

Even though, their fashion sense is something to be envious of, my favourite characteristic of the Common Kingsnake is their choice of prey. This particular snake will eat a variety of creatures such as birds, rodents, amphibians, reptiles and pretty much anything else they can overpower. Even though, this sounds like the normal diet of a hungry snake, it is a little different. You see, some of the reptiles that the Kingsnake feeds on includes Rattlesnakes and other venomous (and deadly) snakes.

Wait!

How can they consume deadly, poisonous snakes? See, that is the interesting part. The Common Kingsnake is actually immune to the venom of numerous poisonous snakes. This allows them to be one of the few animals that enjoy dining on some of the scariest snakes known to man. Not too shabby for animal that is apparently “Common”, is it?

Well that does it for today’s Wild Fact. Enjoy the rest of your day and I will see you tomorrow.