Snake id please

[eipper]

Lockie,

They are venomous

Scott

 

[$NaKe PiMp]

to all the people who are looking in field guides and books which describe them as non venomous,the discovery of the Common Tree Snake to actually having a venom is a relatively recent discovery and most books will not make reference to this fact,However as we well know they are incapable of harming a human with lack of the ability to deliver ,they have aglyphous dentition and no specific hollow fangs as such.

 

[Firepac]

Mate the slaty grey snake, common tree snake and the keelback are all examples of non venomous colubrids. I should know brother I've got a slaty

Quote from Dr. Bryan Fry "Yep, Stegonotus have venom, as do the other Aussie 'colubrids' such as Boiga, Cerberus, Dendrelaphis, Fordonia, Myron, Tropidonophis." (My bold)

And the colubridae family is the largest family of snakes consisting of over 1500 species. The majority are non venomous. The Elapidae family are all venomous so maybe you should do some research first?

Quote again from Dr. Bryan Fry "This is consistent with our research that shows that 'colubrids' worldwide are all venomous (with the very narrow exception of the temperate zone 'Elaphe-type' (e.g. Lampropeltis/Pantherophis/Pituophis and close relatives) which have undergone a secondary loss of venom and reverted back to the more primative constricting condition. (My bold).

Maybe your own research skills need a little sharpening.

 

[NicG]

As I've said before, my problem with labelling (Dendrelaphis) Tree Snakes as "technically venomous" is that it will be misconstrued by the general public. There are some people that will err on the side of caution in an attempt to protect their kids/pets and simply kill them. That may be unimaginable to us but it happens now and will only happen more if it becomes common knowledge that they can be categorized as venomous. They're already struggling to live down the yellow-bellied black snake moniker.

As for whether it is only defensive bites that should be considered harmless, I conducted an experiment a while ago ...

Excerpt from http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/australian-snakes-37/common-tree-snakes-venomous-tag-143636/

So here I have an unequivocably full grown CTS chewing on my finger and now starting to, a little painfully, slice into the skin on my knuckle. Against my natural instincts, I let her be, wondering whether she'd let go by herself. She didn't. After at least 15 minutes, I figured that was long enough and resorted to the cold water tap in the basin.

When she did eventually release me, my finger was completely covered with saliva. So much so that there was very little blood at this point. It wasn't until, not without some effort, I cleaned off the saliva coating that I realized just how deep the main cut was. If there was going to be any adverse effects, then surely this is the optimal scenario.

The blood soon started flowing quite profusely. It took quite some time and several sheets of paper towel before it eventually subsided enough to apply a bandaid. So now all I had to do was wait and see if a) I felt sick at all, or b) there was any local reaction. The answer to both is a resounding no.

If someone asks and you don't want to technically lie, simply stress that they are solid-toothed and harmless.