Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought this pair several years ago. At the time pinkie heads were almost too large for them. I've never been sure of what species they are. Can anyone identify them from these photos? Also, I've always thought the first pic was the male, the other female. The supposed male is slightly smaller and has the thicker tail. Opinions?

I'm sorry I can't help you with the species, but I just wanted to comment and say those are a couple of beautiful snakes! As for sexes, they both appear, to me, to have pretty long, thin tails, but then again I've never tried to visually sex death adders. Probing would probably be better just to have an absolute idea.
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Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com

I am operating on the assumption you are not in Australia and therefor these are death adders from an area under Indonesian control (e.g Irian Jaya or Ceram).

Can you post pictures showing the head from a side on view? Hard to tell from the pics shown so far but they look like a flavor of A. laevis. If they are very red, then probably from Ceram but like I said, hard to tell from these pics.

Cheers
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
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Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
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Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit,
Museum Victoria
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http://www.venomdoc.com

I took these pics yesterday, doubt they show the head well enough but all that I have right now. The fellow who bred them said the adults were imports from New Guinea. So the obvious implication is A.laevis, then?

Yep. A. laevis it is.

Cheers
B
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit,
Museum Victoria
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.venomdoc.com

I appreciate the id!

No worries. I have a bit of a soft-spot for death adders Now, if people just wouldn't over feed them so much in captivity. They aren't supposed to look like inner-tubes. When we catch them in the wild, they are quite gracile and can move much quicker than you'd think from looking at captive animals.

Cheers
B
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.venomdoc.com