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Chironius (exoletus?)
Long slender snake about 3 feet long. Beautiful yellow belly. According to Reptiles and Amphibians of the Amazon (Bartlet and Bartlet) these fast, alert, big-eyes snakes are often seen on the ground, in brush tangles, or on low shrubs during the day and can be found sleeping at night in small understory trees. Frogs and lizards are their preferred prey. Whipsnakes can be difficult to identify and you have to look at the scale (or tooth) counts to tell one species from another.
They are wide-ranging and adaptable and can be found in secondary and primary forests as well as in clearings and in agricultural areas. This snake was spotted in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest near explorama lodge.
this little guy held us captive for a good half hour as we watched it stalk a frog in a small puddle near the lodge. It moved like lightening when it finally had the frog in its sight/smell line. It swallowed the frog in just a few seconds and within a minute there was no visible bump as the frog moved into the digestive trac. Pretty impressive! We've even seen one in CONAPAC's Amazon Library - no doubt on the prowl for prey! https://www.facebook.com
Spotted on Jun 26, 2012
Submitted on Sep 18, 2012
1 Comment
Any snake experts out there? Would you leave a comment about how one actually does a scale or (tooth) count when you need to identify a snake like this?