"Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

South African snakes with venoms that are not considered to be medically important.

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"Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby nyami » Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:33 am

Thought I would share this monster of an Olive Whip Snake which I captured and relocated from one of our companies construction sites a few days ago. This species is the most common snake species found in the area. This particular specimen is the largest I have seen to date. The snake was a male measuring 1775mm in total length and weighed in at 940g!!

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Re: "Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby Superciliaris » Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:30 pm

Extraordinary !! Thanks for sharing.
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Re: "Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby SteveZi » Mon Aug 17, 2015 4:25 pm

beautiful!
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Re: "Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby Ruan Stander » Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:54 pm

That is a monster indeed. It's huge !
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Re: "Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby Mitton » Tue Aug 18, 2015 8:13 am

That is insane. WOW!
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Re: "Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby Eyelash » Tue Aug 18, 2015 9:54 am

Now that's a trophy specimen !
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Re: "Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby Ruan Stander » Tue Aug 18, 2015 2:12 pm

I'm sure if one that size gets to chew for a second or two it would make for a very serious envenomation.
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Re: "Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby Bushviper » Sun Aug 23, 2015 9:17 am

I would not want to take a bite from a specimen that size. It is very heavy (thick set) for such a slender species. I guess being that size allows it to eat other prey not usually associated with Psammophis like Agamas and other large lizards.
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Re: "Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby nyami » Tue Aug 25, 2015 11:10 am

Hi BV, you are right the snake was very chunky. At first glance I thought it was possibly gravid but turns out it was a male. This specimen was also in near perfect condition. I would guess that 60% of the whip snakes I capture have part of the tail missing and at least some scarring.

Interestingly the previous largest specimen I captured was a year ago almost at the exact same location(not more than a hundred meters apart). That snake was a female that measured 1670mm and weighed in at 820g.
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Re: "Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby Ruan Stander » Tue Aug 25, 2015 2:18 pm

Must be something in the water ;)
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Re: "Extra Large" Whip snake from Soyo in Angola

Postby Angola snakes » Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:30 pm

I believe Angola has got quite a bit of exciting surprises to share when it comes to snakes. Good one !
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