that nearly 2,000,000 of these snakes exist within all the habitat they occupy in southern California, and in light of the DNA analysis by Rodriguez-Robles (1999) which lumps L. z. pulchra with L. z. parvirubra, the probable population exceeds 5 million snakes. Most of those serpents live within terrain that is roadless and inaccessible to collectors. Therefore, the protection of this taxon based on fears of over-collection is unfounded (Hubbs, 2004). A better system would be to protect the two populations in San Diego County that are at greatest risk from over-collection, or place a small bag-limit on the subspecies and encourage captive-breeding by hobbyists to supply those who wish to own L. z. pulchra. This would remove the need for illegal collection of wild snakes, and quickly reduce the value of the serpents as more and more become available in the form of captive-bred offspring. That program has worked well for the Rosy Boa and California Kingsnake (Hubbs, 2004). Sources California Department of Fish and Game - Habitat Conservation Planning Branch report References Further reading Hubbs, Brian. 2004. Mountain Kings Tricolor Books. Tempe, Arizona. 324 pp. . Zweifel, R.G. 1952. Pattern Variation and Evolution of the Mountain Kingsnake, Lampropeltis zonata. Copeia 4 (3): 152-168. Lampropeltis Endemic fauna of California Reptiles of the United States Fauna of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of San Diego County, California Natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains Fauna without expected TNC conservation status