One of the "features" (aka: unwanted / unexpected things) of living on the mountain is the wild life you find regularly in your garden - which happens to includes snakes.Found this little one on my stairs this morning. It was very quick, seemed very aggressive, although being this small, you'd have to be feisty, I guess.
I snapped a couple of pics (besides this one, I mostly only got 1/2 of him because he slithered away so quickly).
I used this on to try and find it on Google.
I was surprised to find that there aren't (m)any good snake identifying websites for South Africa.
You snake lovers out there really should get a better catalogue together. Or advertise them better. It took me ages to find any useful information. (There is plenty on cobras and puff adders, but not so much on the many other types we come across in the mountains)
Anyway, I think I managed to track this one down. Seems to be called a Psammophylaz rhombetus or (in English / Afrikaans) Spotted Skaapsteker. They are cute, small (grow to 60 cm in the Western Cape) and not dangerous at all... Shew!
I found some info on an eco travel website and a picture on africapic website and the Claphotos website . Hopefully I have id'd it correctly - anyone who knows better, please let me know!
Posts
1 comment:
Have a faint Metholated spirits coloured purple underbelly and the common South Afrikan Eggeater is known to attempt to mimic the Skaapsteeker. The baby mole snake is born looking a lot like the skaapsteeker to help it seem more dangerous to the birds and animals of the veld that prey on snakes. The name skaapsteeker comes from the farmers who decided to blame this poor little headache inducing back fanged snake for the death of their sheep the skin of which the skaapsteeker would never have been able to penetrate.
Post a Comment