Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In doing research on my coachwhip several of the internet sites say something to the effect that coachwhips are harmless snakes that tend to be aggressive. They may or may not have rear fangs and toxic saliva. What is your experience? In the Mara book on racers, whipsnakes, and indigos there is no mention. Yet in the various wildlife and parks sites they say some do and some don't.

Thanks,

Mike B

Hi,

There was some talk about this in the venomous forum. They were talking about some colubrids such as thamnophis having venom glands, and being rear-fanged, but yet having no effective venom delivery system. I am not really sure on all the details, but perhaps you might consider asking your question in the venomous forum. There is alot of experienced people in there who will possibly know the answer to your question.

Hope this helps!

Chris

as far as i know, they dont have any noticeably enlarged teeth and im not sure about venom. if they do it doesnt seem too powerful. you should try on the venomous forums like goini said. you can try the venommdoc forums as well, Dr. Fry states that the only truly non venomous colubrids are american pantherophis, lampropeltis, pituophis and some relatives, not sure if racers are included in the colubrine relatives he was speaking of but i do know that old world coluber have caused some potentially serious bites, or at least producing noticeable symptoms but again, their relationship to new world coluber may just be artificial.

check out the venomdoc site and you will learn alot about evolution of the venom gland and colubridae, i asked a similar question there about colubrid venom in general and Dr. Fry cleared it up nicely so give that a try along w/ the venomous forums here

hope this helped

was odd that there would be mention several places but not all. Maybe they all used the same wrong source and it just got perpetuated. Or they put that in to discourage people from flipping logs.

Thanks again,

Mike B

I've been nailed many a time by various Nastycophus species, and suffered no ill effects other than profuse bleeding. Maybe some sort of anticoagulent? Blood sure flows with these guys!
Todd Hughes

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Closer...

another shot

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