Copper heads in Jells park (S.E. of Melbourne)

[herptrader]

Most days I ride to work along the Dandenong and Scotsmans creek path. The bike path follows the flood plane. I am always on the look out for herps but in 6.5 years I have spotted very few.

Recently they removed the tea tree scrub under the high voltage power lines which took a couple of months. (This was being done to reduce the risk of fire affecting power and vice versa.) Last week I was riding through the area and I spoke to one of the managers for the clearing project who was inspecting the result and removing weeds. We had quite an interesting discussion about the nature of the ecosystem and the problems it faces. He was aware of things like foxes but not of the gambosia that seem to flourish in almost every puddle. Anyway it came to light that not one snake had been seen by the team of about 10 guys who worked on the clearing over the summer for the couple of months. I thought this was a pretty sad state of affairs.

The only snake I have ever seen near this area was a dead copper head a few years back. I routinely take a number of side routes in the hope of spotting herps so it is not that I am not on the look out. About 5K further along in a heavily wooded area I saw a copper head on the path a couple of years back and this is the only live snake I have ever seen while riding this path.

Last night while riding the section of the path under the power lines I cam across a meter long copperhead sunning itself on the path. I was able to get very close to it for a few minutes before it moved off. It was about a meter long, solidly built and very nicely coloured with bright coppery red sides. It had a couple of bumps on its tail which I assumed were either healed injuries or parasites (it is a frog eater). I got such a buzz. When you spend over an hour each day, five days a week, in what should be prime snake country keeping a sharp eye out for snakes and see almost nothing in 6 and a half years and finally a healthy specimen crosses your path you get very excited.

The only the herps of note I have seen in the area were a couple of long necked turtles and one very health blue tounge which seemed not to mind when I picked it up and gave it a thourough inspection. Despite the gambosia there is also a fairly healthy population of frogs in the billabongs beside the creek.

In Herpetofauna a couple of years back there was an article on an albino copperhead that had been caught in Jells park.

Hopefully the population of herps is doing well in this highly urbanised area but just knows how to keep itself well hidden.

[snakecharma]

thats a pretty sad state of affairs i recon i used to live very close to jells park and used to go there all the time and to tell you the truth i never remember seeing any snakes at all or ever hearing of any seen there. plenty of fat blue tounges and other lizards and the amount of possums is crazy

[moosenoose]

That doesn't surprise me too much Daavid, I believe I have a pretty keen eye for spotting things and I am sad to say in the past 9 yrs I have lived in Melbourne I have spotted sweet FA in the metro areas. I see the signs plastered all over the place with the warnings of snakes, but I've never seen a thing (even when I ditch the 3 noisy kids & the dog lol) The only snakes I have seen in recent years have been in country Vic whilst fly-fishing and to be honest, even then I wasn't looking for them.

[soulweaver]

we were at newport lakes a little while ago, beggining of summer actually, and they have these signs up as well. Anyway we walked around the lake and we were almost back at the car when a yearling tiger snake crossed the path....since being back i have seen no herps....but snake droppings.

[Rossagon]

I think snake populations around Melbourne are very patchy at best, unless of course you follow the Yarra river where you can find stable populations of Tigers. Areas such as Westerfolds park, Skeleton creek in the west, Altona, Point cook, and Werribee surrounds have very high populations of Tigers and blue tongues ( which seem to go hand in hand niche-wise). I can't say much about the Eastern suburbs, as I have never had much opportunity to explore, although I have heard second hand that there are areas around dandenong and the likes with large populations of Copperheads. Although the largest Copperheads I have ever seen in the wild have been down around Colac, in a place called Stoney rises.

Cheers Rossco.

[Sdaji]

With the exception of tigers, Melbourne snake populations certainly are in a very bad state. A few small pockets of habitat remain, which support populations of browns, white lipped and little whip snakes. Tiger snakes are still common, especially along the yarra river, as Rossagon says. I expect red bellieds to be extinct in greater Melbourne before all that long possibly within our lifetimes, with copper heads becoming restricted to a very few populations and going extinct, possibly also in our lifetimes. The last place I saw a red bellied black in Melbourne is now underneath an industrial complex. The area I live in used to have red bellieds along all the creeks, but they died out quite a few years ago now. I suppose that's what happens when you build a huge city on top of a patch of habitat. Maybe it's not so bad, there will still be populations existing not too far from Melbourne, people won't manage to wipe all of them out for a bit longer... hopefully.

[waruikazi]

I don't think it's that bad of a thing that they aren't in the populated areas. Snake bites do alot of damage to our hobby and if you have them in populated areas it will inevatibly happen. As long as they still have large areas of natural habitat left so they don't become completely extinct... and people leave them alone.