Legless lizard ID help.

[reptilerob]

Hi, this evening my wife and i decided to go on a night time herping trip for a couple of hours. At one stage, this little reptile slithered across the road. I thought it might have been a baby snake of some kind, but it looked very small, so we turned the car around and lit it up with the headlights, then got out and took a few photos.
Can anybody tell me what it is??
I have had a bit of a look at legless lizards in Victoria, and couldnt find anything that looked like it. The photos i found showed legless lizards with prenounced heads, like most lizards, but this just looked like a tail with small eyes on it!!lol
If anybody can help me ID this reptile, i would greatly appreciate it. Then i can go on to google it and read up about it.
The right photo is just a tight crop of the left image to help show the head a bit better.

 

[Gecko75]

it is a blind snake (Typhlopidae) not sure of the exact species they are the species I have a lot of trouble ID'ing think you get about 5 or 6 species in victoria, it is some sort of Ramphotyphlops sp, you will have to check a field guide probably, a lot of them the only way to tell them apart is scale counts and stuff. I could never really be bothered with that stuff for a small blind snake

 

[reptilerob]

Awesome!!! Thanks so much for that. I was actually thinking when i was typing, i bet its some kind of small snake, and i make a clown out of myself by calling it a lizard!!LOL
Oh well, making a clown out of myself is all part of the learning game i suppose. Thanks again mate, much appreciated. Ive never seen one here.

 

[reptilerob]

Awesome, thanks a million gecko75. I just done a google search and you have certainly hit the nail on the head. Here is the page i read,
Museum Victoria: Blind Snakes

It says they can sometimes be found moving on the surface on humid nights, which is what tonight is. Thats why we were out.

 

[Gecko75]

Awesome!!! Thanks so much for that. I was actually thinking when i was typing, i bet its some kind of small snake, and i make a clown out of myself by calling it a lizard!!LOL
Oh well, making a clown out of myself is all part of the learning game i suppose. Thanks again mate, much appreciated. Ive never seen one here.

don't worry its a common mistake, a lot of people get them mixed up, but hey atleast you are not getting a three toed skink or some sort of lerista / anomalopus mixed up with a legless lizard, that would be what you would call more of an embaresment then your little mistake, cause they have visible legs :lol: do you get many geckos or of nocturnal species on the roads at night where you are? I find the easiest was to tell whats around is by checking what gets hit often, if there is a lot of roadkill it normally means there are a lot of animals in that area. also gives you a fair idea of the species you would get along the road.

 

[Gecko75]

Awesome, thanks a million gecko75. I just done a google search and you have certainly hit the nail on the head. Here is the page i read,
Museum Victoria: Blind Snakes

It says they can sometimes be found moving on the surface on humid nights, which is what tonight is. Thats why we were out.

that is a good link, wish NSW had some ones like that with a guide an pics online. if you keep night driving often you will soon see a lot of blind snakes, they seem to be one of the most common things we see on our ones aswell. if you are planning on handling them ever, make sure you have some water, they musk you and it smells queit bad, we always forget to pack water so we end up having to put up with it all night. anyway, good on you for getting out there, its always great to see herping pics, its a very addictive hobby I find, good seeing more and more people do it. as long as they are doing it responsibly that is. look foward to anymore pictures you have in future, you have had a lot of success lately by the looks of your other threads.

 

[reptilerob]

Thanks gecko75. We had a great night. That blind snake was the only reptile we saw, but we saw plenty of other wildlife, including a stack of frogs, a possum and a koala, which is quite a rare find in this area.
One of us, either myself or my wife will post some photos in this field herping section later.
As for what we see at night...well we rarely get out at night. We have 2 little girls under 3 years old, and it would be unfair on them to drag them out late too often. Its also impossible to set off on foot after dark with them of course. Last night we had tea at my old mans house, and the kids both fell asleep in the car on the way home, so we decided to head out for a while and just have a look from the car.
Another problem with herping at night when you have kids is that they are early rises, so after going to bed after 1am last night , i am up at 6am this morning!!LOL
Thanks for the advice about the road kill. What a great idea, if i could get out now i would go and check it out now.
First chance i get, im going to go for a look with my hand held spotlight.
As for being addictive, your certainly right. I have been heavily into photography for many years, then my wife started getting into photography. From there she started to enjoy photographing wild snakes, so much so that after 3 months of arguing she finally got herself a pet bredli. (im glad she won that arguement). And thats how it started for us. Although we have been into photography for a long time, we are both quite new to this herping hobby, and what a great hobby it is!!!

 

[Sock Puppet]

Hi Reptilerob, looks exactly like the pic of a "South Eastern Blind Snake" (Ramphotyphlops nigrescens) in my ID book. Nice find!

 

[Asharee133]

Just saw your in wang!, we have blind snakes here?, might have to go herping up the warbys >:] have a look for some of those carpet pythons!