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Anubis is a 3 year-old Mexican Black Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula nigrita) found in areas of the Sonora Desert and Sinaloa, Mexico, as well as small regions of Arizona. He is featured here in the late stages of a moult. Once his eyes clear, he will shed, revealing the new set of scales underneath.

He is raised solely on a diet of mice, but in the wild, kingsnakes will eat reptiles and even other snakes. They are immune to rattlesnake venom and are known to prey on their kind for sustenance. The “king” moniker in a snakes denotes their cannibalistic tendencies.

He is active both in the day and at night (diurnal) and while an adept climber, will prefer to burrow through his substrate in exploration. His vision lacks acuity, but is capable of accurately discerning movement, and explains why their kind prefer to hunt during the daytime.

At 4’2″ in length, Anubis is nearly full grown. I’ve had him since he was a snakeling and no bigger than some of the worms I used to fish with as a child.