Dude - Where's my gonad?

[Fuscus]

This is a wild coastal I got from Shelly beach in Caloundra. When I first saw her I thought "WOW" what an animal but there is "no more bang-bang for this babe"

 

[jonez]

That is unreal!! But unfortunate bout the other bit of of her tho

 

[Rissi]

Beautiful healing....how does she poo ???

 

[Albino93]

^^ good point :/
what happened to her? did she get attacked? or something else?

 

[thomasssss]

id say its lost its tail tip due to a retained shed on the tail tip , just a guess though from what ive been told by others , ive seen a coastal around my place with the exact same thing , it would be after its clouca otherwise i cant imagine it being so healthy

 

[Perko]

Sweet!

 

[Rob]

id say its lost its tail tip due to a retained shed on the tail tip

I've seen this quite a few times, but that is a lot more than just the tip !

 

[Fuscus]

how does she poo ???

Through her vent like any other snake except she doesn't lift her tail .

^^ good point :/
what happened to her? did she get attacked? or something else?

No Idea and I am not game to speculate. A significant portion of coastals that I relocate have part of the tail missing.

 

[53ERX]

Lived in Caloundra for the last 5 years, never saw a coastal like that! Good to see something different

 

[thomasssss]

I've seen this quite a few times, but that is a lot more than just the tip !

doesnt look like it is more than the tip to me just looks like its come off just after the clouca , fuscus you seen the snake in person did it still have its clouca like the scale part of it or had it lost it before that , i would think (with all my aps education ) that it it had lost it before the clouca then it would have some internal damage aswell

 

[Rissi]

If it is after the cloaca no worries, I actually wouldn't mind a snake like that...like a manx snake. cute.

 

[Fuscus]

that it it had lost it before the clouca then it would have some internal damage aswell

The break is only a scale or two behind the vent. You should be able to locate the vent in the attached photo. I'm amazed that not only that she survived but she is very healthy. Her constriction strength is world class. I very much doubt if she could breed. There was some damage during the capture , I scratched up my arms but the snake was unharmed .

I think I better reiterate that it is a WILD snake from a relocation and has been re released

 

[thomasssss]

cheers for clearing that up fuscus , i thought it still had its clouca/vent from the last photo in your first post , you can see the way it slightly tapers under the snake

 

[Rob]

doesnt look like it is more than the tip to me just looks like its come off just after the clouca

It seems that your interpretation of "tip" is somewhat different to mine. With the snakes I've seen with a missing tail tip due to a bad shed it's been the end scale only (i.e. the tip), not from the end of the tail up to (or close to) the vent. My interpretation of this snake is that it is missing pretty much it's whole tail, not just the tip.

I think I better reiterate that it is a WILD snake from a relocation and has been re released

Do you often come across wild animals that look like that ? It is amazing, almost looks selective bred.

 

[thomasssss]

yes rob there does seem to be a bit of a misunderstanding there , thought you meant it had lost its tail past the clouca , it has lost pretty much most of its tail but i just call it a retained tail tip (because its the tip of the snake) when its after the clouca anything before id call a bad shed

 

[Fuscus]

Do you often come across wild animals that look like that ? It is amazing, almost looks selective bred.

This is the first when relocating that has been anywhere near this this "speccy". Even my wife ( a snake phobic ) commented on how beautiful it was. I've seen photos of a DOR that was as good from Perigian Beach near Noosa

 

[Fantazmic]

Such a lovely snake.....has anyone bred anything like it in our captive collections ?

Gosh if its tail had been intact and it could breed......oh so tempting.......but of course we wouls all only ever do the right thing wouldnt we !!

 

[Bluetongue1]

I don’t see why the loss of its tail would render it unable to breed. Given the bodies of carpets entwine when mating, I don’t see a problem with a male aligning its vent with that of the female in question. I may be wrong but it seems to me that they know where each others bits are located without having to measure upwards from the tail tip. Or to put it another way, you can vastly different sized animals mate with no problems.

It is a remarkably patterned animal. That is the sort beast that has tremendous potential for being line bred. A really specky snake. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful animal with us.

Blue

 

[Sissy]

My dad accidentally cut off the tip (well most of like above) of a large coast carpet on our farm with a rotary hoe - she soon become affectionately named Stumpy - this was when I was in my teens and she still lives out there, doing fine... Mum doesn't like her so close the house so Dad has to relocate her every so often let's us know how's she's doing...