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Project Noah Nature School
Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia
small snake about 20cms (8 ins). The white dots indicate that this is a hatchling (adults reach 50 - 100 cm). When the snake becomes upset it inflates and flattens its head to a certain extent which causes the red cheeks or "lips" to become easily visible especially as they contrast with the blue-black colouration on the sides of the head. In photo 3 the black colour of the tongue with a pale forked tip is clearly visible. The snake was investigating a caterpillar dropping here.
heavily wooded, residential smallholding in an otherwise semi-arid savannah region.
This little snake was actually inside a neighbour's house, so we captured it - hence the bucket in photo 4, and released it at the far end of the garden. You can see that the snake was quite calm in the bucket initially and was just testing the air with the tip of its tongue. In photo 2 one can see its size compared to the Eucalyptus leaves on the ground
Spotted on Nov 13, 2012
Submitted on Dec 17, 2012
4 Comments
thank you, I'm considering changing the mission name to Snakes of Sub-Saharan Africa?
I've added my snake photos to the Snakes of South Africa mission although technically they are just over the border in Botswana
thanks Johan, I was delighted at the find - don't think my neighbour was so happy at the time
Nice pictures and spotting!