Carpentaria Snake at Jarowair 09/12/13

It has taken a couple of weeks to add this post as we had to bring in the advice from a few experts regarding the identification of this snake we found at Jarowair on 09/12/13. We have just received confirmation that the snake is a Carpentaria Snake (cryptophis boschami).  We must thank Bob & Judy Irwin, Joy from Scales and Tails and John McGrath for their help with an accurate identification of this snake from my poor photos - your help was greatly appreciated.

The addition of this confirmed snake sighting at our patch brings our overall snake list count to #12 which is pretty exciting for a 19 acre patch of previously stick-racked woodlands.  View the list here.

Below is a re-count of how we came across this new species of snake at our patch and what I sent to the experts for identification help:

Brendon came across a “different snake” (one we haven’t seen at our place before) two days ago while digging holes to plant some gum trees.  The place in which he was digging, used to have a tree in it which had since died, so it wasn’t compacted dirt at all – but had rocks around it and plenty of rocks in it.  The snake was around 55cm+ and was very quiet in nature despite being dug up.  Initially we thought it may be a juvenile red-bellied black snake, because of the dark back and a strip of a redish colour near the belly, but I don’t think that it is one due to the shape of the head and colour of the head.  My other thoughts are (with our limited knowledge) are Eastern-small eyed snake or Carpentaria Snake.   The photos I took aren’t very good I am afraid as it was moving quickly and hard to focus on as it was almost dark.  I have attached the better ones for you to have a look at if you get a chance.  We were pretty excited to see another new species at our place, but don’t want to identify it incorrectly for our list of recorded sightings.  The snake ended up finding a gap between some rocks and totally disappearing so we filled the hole back in loosely to leave it be – without planting a tree there!

Carpentaria Snake at Jarowair 09/12/13



Carpentaria Snake at Jarowair 09/12/13.

Comments

  1. A great find and addition to your impressive list.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks John- yes it's always exciting to see something new.

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