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This snake in SW Australia: |
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st rick Senior Member Joined: 26 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 141  View other posts by st rick |
Posted: 26 Apr 2006 Before anyone freaks out I didn't see this one in Kensington Gardens but in sand dunes near the town of Albany in Western Australia. I am pretty sure it is either a dugite or a tiger snake, the two commonest species in the area. It has the colouration of a Tiger snake, but the head was quite small and the overall length (about 1.3 metres) quite large. I have labelled it as a Tiger Snake, but I'm not too sure. I am pretty sure that it is an extemely venemous species. http://www.trailjournals.com/photos.cfm?id=118304 |
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-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317  View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 29 Apr 2006 Not sure about tiger snake, doesn't seem stocky enough to me, and the head looks quite small compared to the body. I'd go for the Dugite, Pseudonaja affinis. Both tigers and browns can be all black in WA. There is an excellent forum over at www.venomdoc.com that has a number of people who really know their stuff on Aussie snakes, especially venomous ones. They'd be your best bet for a concrete ID. Regards, Lee. Lee Fairclough |
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st rick Senior Member Joined: 26 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 141 View other posts by st rick |
Posted: 01 May 2006 Thanks Lee, I'll post this question on the site you mentioned.
Yes, after my initial Tiger Snake ID I started to wonder. This snake actually had the yellowy underside of the tigers snake that is just about visible in the picture, but the size of the head, length and general slenderness seems wrong. On reflectiion, I think my 1.3 metre assessment is conservative. It was longer than this and closer to 2 metres than one, which would make for a big tiger. I know that dugites are very dark in this part of WA, but they are generally a light snake. It's really confusing when snakes 'borrow' the colouration of their main rival, however...
Thanks for the advice.
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- This snake in SW Australia |