Cat Snake

Description:

Adults are usually around 75 cm, but sometimes 130 cm. A slender snake with a wide flattened head. Snout is tapering, but blunt, eyes small with a vertical pupil. Head scales are large. Back scales are smooth. Grey, beige or brownish back with a dark spot or collar behind head and a series of dark transverse bars or blotches on back which are often oblique (especially on neck where they are best developed). Weaker bars present on flanks and often a dark stripe from each eye to the angle of the mouth. Belly is pale yellowish, whiteish or even pinkish, sometimes heavily suffused with grey or brown, which may form irregular streaks or spots.

Habitat:

Usually found on rocky terrain, rocky degraded woodland, old walls, stone piles, ruins..., but sometimes also in heaps of old vegetation and sandy terrain with bushy plant cover. Sometimes close to human habitats. A mainly lowland snake. If disturbed, can behave like a viper: hisses loudly, flattens body and head and bites. Temperament varies and some will bite when handled (but with Croatian snakes it motsly applies that they won't bite the hand that holds them). Active by night in summer, during the day in colder weather.