Hi everyone,
We live on acreage, in the hills in the Noosa Hinterland, QLD.
We have 2 dogs that we usually let roam in the garden area now that the weather has cooled down. Yesterday, as my hubby was playing with the dogs, he saw something close to the fire pit that looked like a snake. So he got the dogs away, had a closer look, and could tell that unfortunately, the poor bugger was dead. He came to get me, and upon closer inspection, we realised that one of our dog had killed it.. Obviously not long since the deed took place as there was no ants yet on it, and no flies.
So we carefully checked on the dogs making sure they were all good, as the snake had a bite on its head...
I took pictures with my camera but unfortunately, our card reader is not cooperating.. So the pictures here are from my husband's phone.
I measured the snake - it is 80 cm minimum and about 90 cm max (it had a few kinks, and I did not want to handle it too much).
Here are the descriptions:
- shiny black
- ventral scales are the width of the body (So looks like an elapid)
- has a like a scale that looks like an eyebrow above its eye
- its belly was all cream/white (no red, but instead looked like it had some blue where each scale meets)
- not sure about the anal scale (can't telly if single or divided) as it looks like it got bit around there
- Subcaudal scales after what I suppose is the anal scale start out to be single but become divided until the end of the tail.
- No loreal scale - it only has the nostril scale and then right away the contour of the eye scale, and nothing in-between (from pic on camera)
And it had made its den under the wood pile in the fire pit, which had been there for a while but with the non-stop rain, we can't burn it off.
Here are the pictures :
Here you can see its belly better, and the top - it was a really beautiful snake (the mark on its head is the missing scale from the bite from the dog... Poor guy, he really took a beating...) - I gave him a 'wash' in these photos..
Its eyes are actually quite small - on the second pic, it looks like they are quite big, but on other pics (several shots) that I have on my camera, they take hardly any space on its head - so not a prominent part of the head. I'm trying to take pics of pics - but it's not coming that great, quality wise.
We have seen some red-belly black, at least 2 different ones (different size), around the dam, and around our water tank, but this one has NO red whatsoever on him/her.
We also have tree snakes (as we find plenty of skins hanging from our frangipane trees), and we also have some pythons who tend to like staying on our warm electrical equipment under the house...! So there are plenty of snakes around here
One thing is that the head was ever so slightly less dark than the rest of the body, but as you can tell, under it's all cream/white, even the 'chin'.
All these markings makes us think it's a type of red-belly black - but the lack of red is puzzling. Could it be a blue belly black perhaps???
Anyone knows? Thanks so much for your help
We live on acreage, in the hills in the Noosa Hinterland, QLD.
We have 2 dogs that we usually let roam in the garden area now that the weather has cooled down. Yesterday, as my hubby was playing with the dogs, he saw something close to the fire pit that looked like a snake. So he got the dogs away, had a closer look, and could tell that unfortunately, the poor bugger was dead. He came to get me, and upon closer inspection, we realised that one of our dog had killed it.. Obviously not long since the deed took place as there was no ants yet on it, and no flies.
So we carefully checked on the dogs making sure they were all good, as the snake had a bite on its head...
I took pictures with my camera but unfortunately, our card reader is not cooperating.. So the pictures here are from my husband's phone.
I measured the snake - it is 80 cm minimum and about 90 cm max (it had a few kinks, and I did not want to handle it too much).
Here are the descriptions:
- shiny black
- ventral scales are the width of the body (So looks like an elapid)
- has a like a scale that looks like an eyebrow above its eye
- its belly was all cream/white (no red, but instead looked like it had some blue where each scale meets)
- not sure about the anal scale (can't telly if single or divided) as it looks like it got bit around there
- Subcaudal scales after what I suppose is the anal scale start out to be single but become divided until the end of the tail.
- No loreal scale - it only has the nostril scale and then right away the contour of the eye scale, and nothing in-between (from pic on camera)
And it had made its den under the wood pile in the fire pit, which had been there for a while but with the non-stop rain, we can't burn it off.
Here are the pictures :
Here you can see its belly better, and the top - it was a really beautiful snake (the mark on its head is the missing scale from the bite from the dog... Poor guy, he really took a beating...) - I gave him a 'wash' in these photos..
Its eyes are actually quite small - on the second pic, it looks like they are quite big, but on other pics (several shots) that I have on my camera, they take hardly any space on its head - so not a prominent part of the head. I'm trying to take pics of pics - but it's not coming that great, quality wise.
We have seen some red-belly black, at least 2 different ones (different size), around the dam, and around our water tank, but this one has NO red whatsoever on him/her.
We also have tree snakes (as we find plenty of skins hanging from our frangipane trees), and we also have some pythons who tend to like staying on our warm electrical equipment under the house...! So there are plenty of snakes around here
One thing is that the head was ever so slightly less dark than the rest of the body, but as you can tell, under it's all cream/white, even the 'chin'.
All these markings makes us think it's a type of red-belly black - but the lack of red is puzzling. Could it be a blue belly black perhaps???
Anyone knows? Thanks so much for your help
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