Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was at a small zoo in southern India a couple weeks ago. They had a bunch of rat snakes that had been caught locally and brought to the zoo. I was surprised to see the variable ventral colors - from beige to pink to orange to yellow.

The longest were maybe 8 ft

Joe

Sorry

limit of 3 per page I see

3

This young snake was maybe 3 foot. It had just eaten 4-5 chicks they put in the enclosure
joe

Those pics are awsome! They look alot like cribos!
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

They were impressive snakes. Too bad the nice ones were too high up in the trees to get good pics. A local herper told me he had seen them around 11 feet - but not measured at 11 feet (a big difference

Indian herpetology is really in its infancy. New species are being discovered often. I spent very little time herping but found two species (a frog and a lizard) more than a hundred miles from their known range. And the guy mentioned above found two species that don't key out to any known species - and this was on his own property!

joe

I just got some Ptyas in, so I am excited to work with them. I will get some pics as soon as they settle in. These are hatchlings so I have a big hill to climb figuring these guys out.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

We need pics man!

Billy

Pics will be coming soon. They are neonates and need to settle down.
Ptyas

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Yep, had my eye on some of those as well. Fairly recently re-classified as Zaocys, correct? Very cool little buggers either way. Would love to hear about their progress.

Billy

Wow, I didn't know they were even available.

I read that "rat" snake is a bit of a misnomer as they seem to prefer fish, frogs, lizards, birds. The young at the zoo made quick work of the chicks they gave it (live).

The keeper said they bite, but they didn't turn on him when he jumped in and grabbed their tail. (I think he felt sorry for me trying to take pictures of them up in the trees for an hour or more, so rustled one out of its hiding place for me to see on the ground)

joe

I love the open air environment. Looks like they had some nice sized ones. Do you know the subspecies they are?.......Bill
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

I don't know the subspecies for sure, but can pretty much gaurantee you they came from southern India, and probably within 50 miles or so of Bangalore.

The impression I got was that they were animals people found or brought in, or they paid a small amount to collect locally. Other than a couple nice king cobras, the only other snakes they had were indian cobras and russel's vipers - other common local snakes.

Good luck with yours! Keep us posted.

Joe

Sounds like mucosa
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Here is a Ptyas from Taiwan.

Here is an adult mucosus, this one was at least 9 foot, I have seen bigger ones, but it's hard to say how big, as they were too fast and I couldn't get hold of them to take a pic.The color range, I've seen have been from, very light almost white, red, black, brown and greenish yellown.

Keep posting this is good stuff! They definatly have a racer look! I will get some pics of mine. What do yours eat?
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Looks just like my coachwhip hatchlings.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."