Confirm ID please?

Confirm ID please?

Postby HomerS » Mon Feb 09, 2015 11:05 pm

20150209_215247small.jpg
Hi Guys, found this very little guy on a road near the Mountain in Gordon's Bay Western Cape. I am not sure, but after searching the web I think it might be a Brown Water Snake (Lycodonomorphus rufulus).
It was very small. To give you an idea, the wooden portion of the stick in the photo is a bird perch, used for Budgie sized birds. (About 7mm radius) It did not show any aggression, but a lot of curiosity. I helped it across the road, and let it go in some fynbos.
Sorry for the bad photograph, but this taken holding the stick in the car headlights with a mobile phone being alone. At the time I did not know what species it was, so there was no French kissing or holding. :D
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby reptile » Tue Feb 10, 2015 6:59 am

Interesting.... I'd say its a Wolf Snake...
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby SteveZi » Tue Feb 10, 2015 12:34 pm

I would say olive house snake
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby Westley Price » Tue Feb 10, 2015 12:51 pm

Yeah my first thought was also Olive House or Yellow-Bellied House.
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby TonyK » Tue Feb 10, 2015 1:02 pm

Sorry to say but definitely no Wolf Snakes in Cape Town.I would say spot on with Brown Water snake.I have found them all around the Strand / Gordens Bay atea.
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby Coral » Tue Feb 10, 2015 1:42 pm

Brown water snakes here have a pearly pink belly this ones got a white belly i have found wolf snakes here an it does look like one
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby Amphibian » Tue Feb 10, 2015 3:42 pm

Definitely looks like a Wolf Snake.
Most literature (old and new) mentions a few isolated records around the Cape. Maybe not a common find but certainly possible.
Wolf Snake would be my bet anyway.
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby Westley Price » Tue Feb 10, 2015 4:18 pm

I am not disputing the Wolf Snake idea, but the snout looks a bit sharp. Don't Wolf snakes usually have a blunt snout?

Also, the snake pictures above looks like it might have too many scale rows.

Here is one of Mitton's pictures from an older topic. Check the texture of the scales. The scales are larger and counting the rows, it's a lot less than the snake pictured above. Also note the blunt snout pictured below.

Image
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby reptile » Tue Feb 10, 2015 5:30 pm

You've got a point there Westley! but then again.... check out this picture from "A Guide to the Reptilesof Southern Afrika" by Graham Alexander & Johann Marais...
Image
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby HomerS » Tue Feb 10, 2015 5:30 pm

I know color is not much to go by, but this one was black (no spots or markings that I could see) with a white or very light colored belly. But like I said, it was really tiny. When I first saw it I thought it was a large earth worm. :smt004
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby venomking » Tue Feb 10, 2015 6:43 pm

im just throwing my 2cents in here what about a
black olive snake :shock:
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby Ruan Stander » Tue Feb 10, 2015 10:24 pm

I would also lean towards a wolf snake.
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby HomerS » Tue Feb 10, 2015 11:34 pm

If I knew this was such a confusing one to identify, I would have brought it home, properly photographed it, and took it back.

The following is a pic of my finger on the stick. This will give perspective of the size.
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Re: Confirm ID please?

Postby reptile » Wed Feb 11, 2015 7:07 am

Size would have been due to it proberly being a juvenile, thats also might be why its scales seem so tiny...
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