Please ID this Green Snake (Nelspruit)

[Quintin]

Hi All,

A friend of mine went camping somewhere in Nelspruit.

He took some pics of a green snake by a stream... Please positively ID it. (Excuse the quality) They were a bit scared to get closer.. Philothamnus sp??







The also, they took pics over the duration of the weekend, only to discover this pic afterwords. I recon its the same species.

See anything??


Look now!! (If I try and blow the image up, it looses resolution)


Regards,

Q

[Fooble]

Philothamnus natalensis occidentalis, looks quite big to be a Philothamnus hopoglaster

[Jamster]

It is Philothamnus. Looks like Philothamnus natalensis occidentalis to me... correct me if i am wrong as localities are not my strong point

[Quintin]

Thanks guys, I also thought eastern green snake, but was unsure of localities, and didn't have a book close to me..

Apparently the one by the stream was quite big.

Regards,

Q

[sega]

Looks like it might be a boomslang to me? i'm just going by it's head shape and colour.

[Warren Klein]

Difficult to say for sure but the snake by the stream looks like a Boomslang to me.

[herpcrazy]

It looks way to bulk for a green snake. i would also go with boomslang, especially the big eyes.

[herpcrazy]

The first pic also look like it has slightly keeled scales.

[Wolf777]

I would say either a nice sized P. hoplogaster or P. natalensis occidentalis.

[Jamster]

Really does not look like boomslang to me. You can see the slight blue speckling vaguely in the photos which is characteristic of philothamnus spp. It is also not always easy to differentiate from boomslang when looking at the head from a frontal view. If there was a photo of the head from the side it would give a much clearer indication. I'm sticking with Philothamnus natalensis oocidentalis. If you google this species you will also find that they do attain a descent size and this one is at a feasible size. The snake is also very glossy dorsally which means smooth scales. Just my opinion

[michael]

No doubt about it is the elusive Mpumalanga Green Mamba Philothamanus natalensis occidentalis !

[bubblesharp]

Really does not look like boomslang to me. You can see the slight blue speckling vaguely in the photos which is characteristic of philothamnus spp.

I would not trust the blue speckling seen in the photographs, it is too vague and it could have been caused due to light settings etc on the digital camera although I do agree it doesn't quite strike me as a boomslang, which was my first thought until I got to pic 3. That head doesn't convince me that it is a boomslang, the eyes are not big enough. So judging by these photo's I would also go with Philothamanus natalensis occidentalis.

[Badasti]

Looks like a Green Mamba to me. According to my field guide the Eastern Green Snake only gets just shy of 800mm long. This one looks over a meter long to me? The Green Water Snake is also supposed to reach a max length of less than 700mm.... While the Green Mamba gets just shy of 1.5m or Boomslang just shy of 1.3m. Going by the pictures I have the EGS and GWS are a much duller green. I only have one picture of each though. I see the most resemblance to a Green mamba, much more so than a Boomslang.

Don't ask me how it would have gotten to Nelspruit though, looks like 100-200 km away from it's natural range - depending where in Nelspruit they were... Maybe it stowed away in someones camping stuff? :P

So yeah I'd put money on Dendroaspis angusticeps.

[Fooble]

Not to come across as condescending or pretentious I will be my life on the line to say it's not a Green mamba. Not even close.
Regardless of distribution looks nothing like a Green mamba.
The colour one can't go on by due to the camera and lighting ect.

[Aaxel]

Boomslangs only really come down to the ground to switch trees, and the green colour is to solid to be boomy.
Green mamba's head are not as promanent from the neck and very rarely come dowm from trees and into the the open.
I'm betting on philothamnus natalensis occidentalis.