Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have never written to this forum before. I get bored with some of the other forums because they are usually the same old stuff over and over again. The reason I am writing is that I need to see if there are any experts on korean rats and other snakes. I live in korea and travel all over the world in search of various reptiles for a tv show i do here. We have never done a show on Korean reptiles (probably because there are not a lot of them and nothing big and impressive) BUT the producers have decided to do a 3 part series covering various snakes found here. There is very little info out there in cyber world on most Korean species unless their range extends to China or other localities that allow export. I have seen pictures on this forum of korean rat snakes but have never seen any snakes resembling the pictures I have seen. I did not notice any latin names and in Korea there is no snake with a common name "korean ratsnake". I appreciate it if someone would enlighten me as to the latin name of what you call the korean ratsnake. I do know that there is a bit of info on Elaphe dione which they call the cat snake but I always have known it simply as dione's rat. . We will also cover Elaphe schrenckii or the russian rat. There are other species that we are planning on covering such as vipers and water snakes but any and all information would be welcomed as I try to prepair for our trip through the korean countryside. I also am trying to find info on Dinodon rufozonatus which they are calling the red banded odd-tooth snake? Thanks in advance, nydon

The proper name (unless they changed the genus on me again) is Elaphe shrencki anomala. It is also known as the Southern Amur Ratsnake. The Russian (or Amur) Ratsnake is a subspecies.

Dinodon is a wetlands snake that feeds primarily on fish.

Common names can be a real problem sometimes...

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."