Gold snake
| Gold snake | ||||||||||||
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Gold snake |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Chrysopelea ornata | ||||||||||||
| ( Shaw , 1802) |
The golden snake ( Chrysopelea ornata ), also known as green tree snake , yellow-green tree snake or common tree snake , is a 1.50 meter long species from the snake family . The pattern on the skin of this species is very variable in its range. Like all ornamental tree snakes , this species is also capable of short gliding flights from an elevated position.
Appearance
These animals have a green to black, patterned, often banded scale dress, which is provided with striking bright yellow, red or orange dots on the back of many specimens. The head is very narrow. The males are slightly thicker and longer than the females.
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Way of life
The diurnal golden snake can only glide very short distances from tall trees. She slowly climbs through the treetops in search of prey such as lizards, frogs, smaller birds and mammals. She is a stalker . The prey is held in place with the strong jaws and paralyzed with a very fast-acting, but harmless poison from its large, rearward-facing teeth and instantly devoured. When cornered in danger, she bites painfully. In the event of danger from birds of prey or larger mammals, it drops from the branches and flattens its body to double its width in order to escape better.
After rain showers, gold snakes like to warm themselves in exposed places on the ground, individual boulders or tree stumps are visited again and again as real favorite places.
Reproduction
The female lays 6–14 white, oblong-oval eggs in rotting piles of leaves or wood. When hatching, the young are between 15 and 20 centimeters tall.
distribution and habitat
This species occurs in Sri Lanka , in most of India , in Bangladesh and Nepal , in Myanmar , Thailand , Laos , Cambodia , Vietnam , West Malaysia (including Pulau Tioman ) as well as in Indonesia and the Philippines , furthermore in the extreme southeast China . It inhabits the tropical forests , but is also found in human settlements.
Subspecies
The following three subspecies are known:
- Chrysopelea ornata ornata ( Shaw , 1802)
- Chrysopelea ornata ornatissima ( Werner , 1925)
- Chrysopelea ornata sinhaleya ( Deraniyagala , 1945)
Hazards and protective measures
Since no endangerments are known for this species and it also occurs in protected areas, it is listed by the IUCN as ( Least Concern ) not endangered.
Web links
- Chrysopelea ornata in The Reptile Database
- Chrysopelea ornata inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016.3. Posted by: Vogel, G., Wogan, G., Diesmos, AC, Gonzalez, JC & Inger, RF, 2011. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
literature
- Jiří Felix (eds.), Květoslav Hísek: Asian fauna in color. Translated from the Czech by Ingeborg Šestáková. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1989, pp. 83-84.
- David Burnie (Ed.), Mariele Radmacher-Martens: Animals: The large picture encyclopedia with over 2,000 species. Translated from the English by Gabriele Lehari. Dorling Kindersley, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-8310-2232-8 , p. 394.
- Ann Baggaley (ed.): Lexicon of the animals. Translated from the English by Michael Kokoscha. Dorling Kindersley, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-8310-1434-7 , p. 173.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chrysopelea ornata in The Reptile Database ; accessed on December 18, 2018.