Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Greetings from Nuevo Vallarta.

We have lots of empyy lots around us, full of what I would call "bush" but the locals refer to as "Jungle". So we get lots of interesting animals visiting.

Today the dogs were going ape at a young tree in the back garden and on investigating, I found two really skinny, approx 2.5 to 3ft long, snakes. One had the other in it's mouth. Was it trying to eat it, or was this some sort of mating trick?

Top half light brown, bottom half pale yellow. Head noticable bigger than the body. Fish eyes.

My main concern is to find out if they are harmless (which I suspect they are). It doesn't worry me, but unfortunately my wife has a "kill it in case it bites" attitude that is taking quite some time to change.

I'll attempt to post a couple of pics.

Well, that worked a treat, so here's the other pic...

Then look like vine snakes to me... Well, i hope your wife dont mind that they are mildly venomous. They are rear fanged.

J.

Well, that's unfortunate! I guess I'll just not tell her then. :^)

Thanks for the info.

How about this one?

That one looks like a cat-eyed, or night snake, (Leptodeira septentrionalis). Another rear-fanged lizard & frog eater. May also take mice.

~~Greg~~

That's a Leptodeira or some sort. Like Oxybelis, they do have mild venom that might cause swelling and whatnot, but poses no real danger.

Patrick Alexander

Those are Mexican vine snakes(Oxybelis aeneus auratus). I don't think that is cannibalism going on there. Rear fanged, lizard eaters, not especially dangerous to man, but a bite may well cause some discomfort.

~~Greg~~

Thanks!

Tell me, are these full size, or just babies. They're so tiny!

It really looks like mating behavior to me. Lovely snakes.

Great pic! I think you stumbled across a mating pair. I've seen other types of male snakes hold the female to keep her from wandering off... Don't worry too much about them being rear fanged- they wouldn't bite unless you grabbed them. They're probably eating up the little lizards in the neighborhood. Neat snakes.
Lora

Well, I'm now adopting a policy of moving all snakes I find off the property.

My wife told me this morning that after I went inside (after taking the photo's) see let one of the dogs kill one of those gorgeous little snakes. Grrrrr.

Just now the dogs cornered a snake near the gate. I moved it outside with the aid of a long wooden curtain pole and it shot into the bush next door. It was a bigger snake and didn't like the pole much. :^) My wife wanted to simply run it over with the truck. Sigh.

Here's a pic of it.

We're getting a LOT of snakes right now. Rainy season has just started. A few days back there was a snake rapped around the car's wiper blade - a sexually confused coral or milk snake of some sort (no photo of that one, sorry).

Can't see the head very clearly...it's a colubrid of some sort though...not dangerous.

The one that got on your car, though...that was a Windshield Viper.

Oh, the pain, the agony....that was horrible.....

I'm replying anyway even though it's a bit late but I was herping down in Colima during this thread. Greg was right on brown vine snakes, Oxybelis aeneus. The cat eyed snake is Leptodeira maculata the most common of cat-eyed snakes found along the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The other snake is a Mexican racer, Coluber constrictor oaxaca but I didn't think they occured in Nayarit.