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Project Noah Nature School
Tropidonophis mairii
The non-venomous keelback has the highest resistance to cane toad toxin of all Australian snakes, and eats young cane toads and tadpoles without being harmed. It also eats native frogs, tadpoles and skinks. It is a semi-aquatic freshwater snake. We found this one swimming (and probably eating cane toad tadpoles - they were everywhere) in a puddle leftover from heavy rain at the Poverty Point camping area in the Great Sandy National Park. The eyes of this specimen appear to be cloudy - I'm not sure whether it had a vision problem or if it was just preparing to shed.
Spotted on Feb 1, 2013
Submitted on Feb 7, 2013
5 Comments
*wasn't!
Apparently it's something to do with the number of scales and a particular one near the eye. My dad was a ranger with national parks for 15 years so he was pretty certain, but i was going to get much closer just in case!
Thanks Alice. My hubby was very certain this was a keelback and not a rough-scaled snake (certain enough to catch it and take a good look), but I don't know enough to tell the difference so I can't comment on yours! : )
and i hope it was a keelback & not the venomous rough scale because they are very very similar in appearance!
The keelback's eyes that i photographed appeared this way also but i dont remember if i used a flash or not so i'm not 100% sure why they appear this way. We seem to have many of the same animals in our areas!
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/162...