Snake I .D please

[ofuros]

Came across a few of these lovely serpents yesterday, lazily catching the suns rays on the track....Main Range, Goomburra, Qld.
Anyone know the species ?

Cheers,
Ofuros

[michael_p]

I only have very basic Snake ID'ing books. The stripe on the side of the face from behind the eye would make me think it could be a type of Whip Snake. Then again I could be wrong.

[ofuros]

Thanks for the imput michael_p.

Your one step ahead of me, I don't have any Snake I.D. books.....
Since we live in a land of snakes, I'll have to remedy that.
Any snake book recomendations ?

[michael_p]

Sorry, I don't know of any books for Queensland.

Although I do think it is a Whip Snake I could be wrong about it. Have a look at the photo in the following link, could be a Marsh Snake:
http://www.reptilesdownunder.com/arod/reptilia/Squamata/Elapidae/Hemiaspis/signata

[johnw]

It could be what Michael suggests but I wouldn't discount it being an Eastern Brown either. My first thought on seeing the image was "brown snake". I'm no expert but there is a lot of colour variation among them. I've had occasional encounters in the Blue Mountains.

http://www.wildlifeqld.com.au/Eastern_Brown.html

[hikingoz]

I know from first hand experience than juvenile browns can have various colored stripes and bands around the head. Here's a picture of one I came across in winter.

brown snake.jpg (35.22 KiB) Viewed 12436 times

[gayet]

From what I recall, QLD whip snakes are lighter in body colour than that but my first thought was also a whip snake. Did it move very quickly and, perchance, climb vertically?? Those resident around the high end of my house in SE Qld, would run up and down near vertical boulder walls. They weren't as markedly different in head and body colour though. And not as dark as the brown snakes further along the house perimeter.

[tasadam]

Looking at THIS GUIDE, it certainly appears to be a Yellow-faced whipsnake. They have an email ID service where they try their best, maybe give that a go.

I found some other guides -
http://www.wildlifeqld.com.au/Lizards.html
http://www.whatsnakeisthat.com.au/snake ... ation.html
http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/wildlife-eco ... sland.html
http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about ... les/Snakes

Then there's Google.

[ofuros]

Thanks for the all the replies & the varied answers.....
Gayet.....it was located in a gully alongside a flowing creek, not flighty or aggressive.
Once it knew of my presence, just lazily slithered through the leaves & twigs, very nonchalant.

I have done a little digging myself online.
These guys have a free email I.D. service too so have sent them a pic.
http://www.snakecatchers.com.au/Snake_ID.php
Which is I have just realised is the same site/different name as .....wildlifeqld.com.au

Have also emailed tasadam's suggestion.... wildlifeanswers.com.au
So we'll see what the mail brings......

Think my money's on the marsh snake....or a whip snake of some kind.

A deluge of answers.
My hats off to all you snake sleuths out there....michael_p , johnw, abceight, gayet & tasadam.
......thanks again.

Ofuros

Last edited by ofuros on Tue 27 Dec, 2011 7:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[jackhinde]

the snake is a Hemiaspis signata, known to most herpetologists as a "swampy" or "marshy"

[ofuros]

Thank you very much, jackhinde.
If there was a smilies 'thumbs up' I'd give you one.

[Drifting]

We had tons of those living at our place in SE Qld. We'd go months without seeing them, and then all of a sudden the place was crawling with them. We got a herpetologist from Currumbin Sanctuary to come and have a look, and he said it was a whip snake, a female actually, who was hanging out her "Love For Sale" sign and attracting hordes of boys at breeding times. Apparently they'll chase off other snakes, even browns.

EDIT: I'll leave the above as proof of my error. After looking up Hemiaspis signata, I'd definitely say that it's a Marsh snake.

Last edited by Drifting on Mon 26 Dec, 2011 6:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[tasadam]

Thank you very much, jackhinde.
If there was a smilies 'thumbs up' I'd give you one.

There are ways...

[ofuros]

Tasadam.......whoooa ! But i like it ! cheers.

Drifting.....its all good, loved the short love story anyway !

Last edited by ofuros on Sun 01 Jan, 2012 9:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

[ofuros]

Thanks for to all the above posters for their imput/ thoughts.
...Both free I.D. service emails came through confirming its a Marsh Snake, Hemiaspis signata.

Without seeing the snake in person and without being able to count scales, its an educated guess based
on their experience & the quality of the photo supplied.

Cheers all,
Have a happy New Year.

Ofuros

[phan_TOM]

G'day ofuros,

If you don't have much in the way of wildlife identification books I would highly recommend a couple of the Queensland Museum publications, both 'wildlife of greater brisbane' & 'wild guide to moreton bay' are great little guides to the wildife in our area. Over a thousand animals described from insects & reptiles to fish, mammals & birds (to name a few, theres even worms, arachnids & molluscs!) covering the most commonly found animals from most of the major groups (a comprehensive listing of all the 'known' animals living in our bioregion would fill numerous large volumes...). These guides were standard fare whilst I was doing field trips and studying environmental science at uni, going and doing wildlife surveys at places like the border ranges, etc. I live in North-east NSW and find these two to be outstanding ID books amongst my personal collection of wildlife, geological and botanical reference material.

p.s. accurate snake ID can sometimes only be possible when a specimen has its scales counted. Of all the majpr reptile groups snakes are generally regarded as the hardest to identify and most people refer to snake sightings as 'browns' when they are more often than not anything but. Truth is many snakes are brown but there are also regional differences in snake colouration and marking as well as differences between juveniles and adults, and etc etc... I've witnessed herpetologically minded individuals, snake experts, argue about the identification of a sighting, pretty amusing But not worrying like the time we were surveying in forest and a teacher dived on an unknown snake as it tried to flee into the undergrowth turned out it was a 'brown' snake...

[ofuros]

Thanks phan_Tom,
I'll check out those reference materials you mentioned.

I'll leave the 'bush diving' on browns to your teacher....

I used to handle tigers, copperheads & whips when I lived in Tassie....when I was way younger.
Now I leave them well alone, especially on remote solo trips !
Just in case.

Cheers,
ofuros.

[north-north-west]

Thank you very much, jackhinde.
If there was a smilies 'thumbs up' I'd give you one.

There are ways...

Do you have a 'middle finger' version of that? I've been looking for a good one for years. (No, I wouldn't use it here.)(Not unless you REALLY annoyed me.)

[juxtaposer]

These are actually quite common in the outer suburbs and a lot of panicky reportings of "brown snakes" you hear around Sydney are these. Although there are brown snakes too in some parts.