Snake Identification

Snakes can be notoriously difficult to identify. Hopefully these guidelines will prove useful.

Colour differentiation, used by most novices, is seldom accurate because individuals of the same species can vary widely. For example, the female boomslang ranges from grey to olive green, whilst the male can be bright green or black with a yellow underbelly. To effectively identify snakes, alternatives methods are required.

General Warning: In Southern Africa, any snake with a uniform brown colouration, light or dark, should be considered dangerous.

Cautionary Note: 80% of snake bites in South Africa are inflicted as a results of people trying to catch or kill snakes. The lesson from this is LEAVE THEM ALONE! If they're in the house, call the professionals.

Identification

It is more useful to identify snakes by the shape of their head, size of their eyes relative to their head, general shape and size, and if possible, scale type, with colour being the completing factor.

Length

Accurately judging the length of a snake is difficult. They most often move with their bodies in curves, and movement itself often makes it difficult to focus on the entire snake. To overcome these challenges, describe a snake using an approximate length relative to a nearby object which you can measure or make a good length judgement of.

For adult snakes, use the following scale:

• small: 15cm to about 0.5 m (6 to 18 inches)
• medium: 0.5m to about 1m (18 to 36 inches)
• large: > 1m (>3 feet)

Body Shape

Snakes of any length may range from slender to stout. Body shape is a characteristic which should be judged by overall impression. Snake body girths normally change smoothly from head to tail, so don't be confused by the following scenarios.

• Since snakes swallow their prey whole, their bodies may be misshapened following eating of large prey, but this is usually exhibited as a lump in the body rather than a change in the overall shape.
• A more misleading change in normal body shape will be effected in gravid females (carrying eggs or pregnant). Depending upon the species, snakes may either lay eggs or give live birth. A normally slender or typical-bodied snake may appear stout when gravid, but the girth will be extended non-uniformly, showing a series of lumps spread along the last half of the body.

Use these three categories to describe body shape:

• slender
• typical
• stout

Head and Neck

Use these categories for classifying head size relative to the snake's body.

• No neck: In these snakes there is very little difference between the diameter of the head and the body.
• Medium headed: For these snakes the head is distinguishable from the body but not excessively so.
• Broad headed: For these snakes the diameter of the neck is noticeably smaller that that of the head.

Eye Size Relative to Head Size

There are only two categories into which snakes can be placed.

• Large eyes relative to head (eg Boomslang),
• Eyes size normal relative to head.

Eye/Pupil Shape

• Elliptical - much like a cat's eye.
• Round - like a person's eye.

Pattern

Pattern is formed by the distribution of color and shade on the snake's body. Pattern is the most confusing characteristics to describe. For this reason, it is important to use defined terms when describing pattern. The following terms should be used to describe pattern.

• No pattern: The snake appears to have a uniform color or to be basically one color with only faint or sparse patterning from other colours.
• Coloured head: For some snake speices, the color/pattern of the head may be in stark contrast to that of the body. In other cases there may be a ring or spot of contrasting color immediately behind the head.
• Linear multicolor: The snake's color changes (with an area of blending) from head to tail. Usually there are only two colors, but there may be minor patterning.
• Spotted: Spots of distinct color or shading are arranged on the body in a linear fashion, usually in one or two rows, but may be more random.
• Banded: Bands are areas of distinct color or shading that tend to run around the girth of the body and are distributed along the length of the body. Bands may be of nearly uniform width (rings) or of varying width. Bands may be continuous across the back or may be broken at the sides, and the side portions may not be aligned with the back portion.
• Blotched: Blotches are a special type of band. They are bands occurring against a background where the side portions of the bands are absent or disjunct and greatly reduced; most blotches have rounded edges, but some may have nearly straight edges.
• Striped: Stripes are lines of distinct color or shade which run in the direction of the length of the body.

Scale Texture

The surface of a smooth scale is nearly flat or slightly rounded. A keeled scale has a pinched ridge in the center. To a great extent, the amount of keeling of the scales is related to the shine of the scales. Smooth scales are shiny and strongly keeled scales are usually not.

• Smooth: Snakes with smooth scales appear slick and shiny, as if they are made of plastic.
• Weakly keeled: The weak keeling may not be obvious. Snakes with weakly keeled scales may appear shiny or not, depending upon the species.
• Keeled: Snakes with keeled scales appear rough and usually have little or no shine.

Colour

As colour is a poor means of identification for snakes, describe the snake in terms of the most dominant colours and shades only.

Khumbula iAfrica's Snakes

The snake species most prevalent at our lodge are the Mozambican Spitting Cobra, Black Mamba, and Spotted Bush Snake.

Mozambican Spitting Cobra: The Mozambican Spitting Cobra is brown with a very distinct rounded or boot-shaped face with an orange and black striped underbelly. It can spit lethal venom up to 2.5 metres.

Black Mamba: The Black Mamba is a lethal snake. It is gun metal grey on top and almost white underneath. It has a coffin-shaped, sharp pointing head and a pitch black inner mouth that will be displayed when threatened. It's average size in the region of our lodge is 2.3 metres.

Spotted Bush Snake: The Spotted Bush Snake is small, thin and bright green with black spots from its head to midway down its body. It is harmless to humans, but is often killed because it is mistaken for a boomslang or green mamba. However, we do not get green mambas at Khumbula iAfrica, and boomslangs are generally thicker and longer, so there is no excuse for confusing these species with the harmless Spotted Bush Snake.