Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi,

please, let me know what Taeniura species this is.
I have bought it on a reptile show as a Taeniura Friesei but I'm sure that this isn't a Friesei. I have a lot of Friesei's, each year a breed 20 Friesei's and they don't look the same.

greetings,
mark

ps. I think this is a Yunnan.

what kind is this?

Mark,

It looks like it could go either way, although I think it might be a Taiwan with reduced pattern, or a cross. One of my greatest fears is that people will cross different subspecies and then sell them as 'one' ssps. Just from looking at the picture I don't think we can tell what's really going on with this snake ):

TC

I have the snake for 1 year now and it grows less hard as a Friesei. I think it is about 90cm now, and is around 1.5 to 2 years old, so that is not so large for a taeniura, My albino taeniura taeniura is 1 year old and is about 1.2 meters.

I don't think it is a Friesei, I have taken both species next to each other and the don't look the same.

I hope it is a yunnan, and not a cross breeding between 2 kinds.
I let know if I know more.

greetings,
mark

I agree with Terry, too hard to tell from the pictures; then toss in the possibility of it being a natural intergrade or hybrid that someone produced and things are even more difficult to differentiate.

You can always try going the route I did and comparing scale counts, tongue color, and pattern to what's been publishedbut if it's a cross, you might not be able to figure it out for sure.

Good luck and let us know if you draw any conclusions.

Steve

Good question & one that I'd like to know the answer to as I've got a young female that looks very similar (see photo with some young Blues). Certainly the neck pattern & tongue colours are Friesi but her colouration looks more Yunnanensis.

Remember, yunnanensis is one of the smaller ssps, ave. about 150 cm. Friesi is the largest ssp. Yunnanensis is a montane form, as far as I know, and I've even heard there's a dwarf morph which is the smallest taeniura, yet.

I think all the ssps. are variable. For instance, t. taeniura has a green morph and a brown morph. Also, the patterns are somewhat variable. Because of the possibility of crossing the different ssps, we'll probably have to resort to scale counts, and other more technical characteristics, in the future, to be sure of the ssp. that we actually have.

Folks who have specimens that have classic color/pattern, the correct size adults, and within limits on the scalation, will have the primo snakes to sell. For instance, check out Colubridman's photos of the blue beauty for awesome snakes.

TC

>>Good question & one that I'd like to know the answer to as I've got a young female that looks very similar (see photo with some young Blues). Certainly the neck pattern & tongue colours are Friesi but her colouration looks more Yunnanensis.
>>

Hi Terry,

Are there any of these dwarf Yunan's in US collections?

I ask because of an experience at a show many years ago. At the table next to me a guy was selling a pair of Yunan Beauty Snakes. They were still pretty tiny, smaller than a dime in diameter. He and I almost worked out a trade for them but it never happened.

I ran into him at the show the next year and the first thing he said to me was that he was glad the trade never worked out. Within a few to several months after the show he bred the same pair and evidently sold the clutch for a large sum of money. I understood the snakes to still be under 3' when he bred them.

I always assumed he put more size on them than he realized or that they simply bred at a subadult size. Now I wonder if he had some of these dwarfs.

Hi, Chris.

That's an interesting story. Makes me wonder a little too.

I wish there were these dwarfs in U. S. collections. I'd sure want to see them, at least. I just read in an article somewhere that a dwarf form of the Yunnan stripe-tailed rat had been discovered in the mountains somewhere in China, in Yunnan Province, I think. It'll probably reach the U. S. eventually, if it hasn't already. One can hope anyway

PS: The article said they only reached about three feet in length.

TC

Looks like a freisi to me.. Possibly a cross, but I've produced babies last year and this year that look identical to it.. My male is super high yellow, and it seems to carry on to offspring well..
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DarkWave Exotics

Currently keeping:
1.2 southern scrub pythons
1.0 reticulated python
1.0 albino burmese python
1.2 jungle carpet pythons
1.0 irian jaya carpet python
0.1 sumatran blood python
1.0 ball pythons
0.1 green anaconda
1.1 emerald tree boas
2.2 colombian redtail boas
1.0 sonoran boa
1.0 cancun boa
1.2 normal and albino whitewater rosy boas
1.1 false water cobras
1.1 greyband kingsnakes
1.1 albino and het chinese beauty snakes
1.2 taiwan beauties
2.1 cornsnakes(Opal, okeetee, anery, stripes)
1.1 albino and multi het emory ratsnakes
0.1 albino checkered gartersnake
1.1 california kingsnakes
0.0.2 tiger leg monkey tree frogs
1.0 paddle tailed newt
0.1 foam nest tree frog
2 bearded dragons
9 leopard geckos
1.1 central american banded geckos
0.1 nile monitor
1.0 savannah monitor
0.1 russian tortoise

and lots of bugs, furry critters, fish and birds