Snakes on the home front

[tropicbreeze]

While doing my regular toad patrol at home tonight I took some photos of other night prowlers. Slaty-greys are out all year round mostly getting into the fish (natives) in my ponds. I've seen up to 4 different individuals in a night, but mostly only 1 or 2.



The Night Tigers are less frequently seen. You'll see them a lot and then they seem to disappear for a while. Only seen 2 separate individuals in a night. One used to hang from the ceiling of my verandah every night for ages. Never saw it trying to catch anything.


Another snake I saw was this afternoon but couldn't get a photo. I disturbed it first time on the lawn. Only noticed it when it bolted. It moved incredibly fast. About 1.5 metres and a real black colour. It was 'fat', but elapid-fat, not a python-fat. Probably had been eating well. It was mid afternoon, most snakes at my place only get around at night.

A while later I was surprised by it again, almost in the same spot. But again, never had the camera. It looked at me for a few seconds flickering its tongue and then bolted back in amongst the same shrubbery. It was evenly black on top but just back of the head, on the sides, it seemed to have a check pattern. It was just like the edging on a King Browns scales. The head was broader than a Slaty-greys. I suspect it may have been a Western Brown. There are some around here and I understand they can be black without any banding. Otherwise, I'm at a total loss as to what it might have been. Anyone care to hazard a guess at what it might be, from that very vague description?

 

[Asharee133]

that aint a night tiger its a darwin carpet

 

[Poggle]

that aint a night tiger its a darwin carpet

hehe yes it is sorry. Night tiger is just a colour morph of the brown tree. Diferent shaped head to this all together sorry tropic breeze

 

[Bluetongue1]

The carpets also have very small irregua=lar scales on the top of the the head and labial pits (for heat sensing) at the front of their mouths. BTS have enlarged, regular and mostly paired head shield scales and no labial pits. Here’s some links to a couple of ‘Night Tiger’ Brown Tree Snakes: http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/3743/dsc0078sf.jpg +
http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=181534&d=1294823659

I really like the colouration of that Northern (Darwin) Carpet Python.

Blue

 

[tropicbreeze]

Thanks for that correction, I'm glad I've finally found out after all these years of mislabelling my photos. I think it was over 15 years ago I found one that was IDed as a Night Tiger (not here). I'm sure I took photos but they'd be on slides, if they can be found. Must have been a bit of a lapse of memory when I came in contact with these (about 5 - 6 years ago) and immediately assumed Night Tigers without checking. I'll have to try find those slides to see if the original ID was correct or not. So Darwin Carpets are quite small?

But any thoughts on what the "black snake" might be?

Some more from my "Night Tiger" collection of photos, LOL.

 

[Poggle]

3rd picture is a nice specimen

 

[Bez84]

awesome looking darwins... there just young fellas

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Generally Night Tigers will actually be smaller or at least thinner than the animals you have pictured although some animals can get large. Darwin Carpets can get much bigger than those pictured, perhaps those are juveniles or there is some other reason for their size.

 

[dihsmaj]

I'm most likely wrong but the black snake seems to be a small-eyed snake.

 

[GeckPhotographer]

I'm most likely wrong but the black snake seems to be a small-eyed snake.

Nah man it is a Slatey-grey (Colubridae: Stegonotus cucculatus)

 

[dihsmaj]

oh wait yeah. I didn't see the white underbelly.

 

[Bluetongue1]

The black snake sound like a Black Whip Snake (Demansia atra). Sorry Tropicbreeze, I actually had this in my original post and managed to remove it.

They are pretty stocky for a whip so much more like a typical elapid but still have that ability to move like greased lightening. They can grow to a metre and a half in length. The scale with dark posterior margins and the white lateral speckling of the anterior end is fairly typical. You don’t tend to get totally black Western Browns and the darker colour morphs tend to have some form of specks over their body but not the pale areas laterally near the head. Each scale is uniform in colour. The whip will be white to gray underneath while the W.B. will be yellowish with brown flecking, typical of Brown Snakes.

Blue

 

[tropicbreeze]

Thanks for that Blue. I googled for images and the darker forms seemed a good match. Haven't seen it since so it's probably moved on. A pity it's so nervous and flighty. So unlike the Slaty-greys which will often 'sniff' my foot and then slide over it totally unfazed. I saw a note that D. atra is now D. vestigata.

 

[eipper]

Hi Blue,

They are no longer known as atra anymore....they are now vestigiata.

Without a photo it could be Black Whip either Demansia vestigiata or D. papuensis, a large Slaty grey (not all are grey or black) or a Northern Brown Pseudonaja nuchalis.

Cheers,
Scott

 

[Bluetongue1]

Thanks for the species correction – remiss of me to forget the various revisions. I am comfortable from the description given, in particular the dark edging on the scales and lighter patterning of the lateral area posterior to the head, in conjunction with the manner in which it behaved, that the other contenders can be eliminated.

Blue