Large Eastern brown snake - DOR Cassilis 20/09/2024

It was a perfect Friday afternoon, 20th September 2024.  I had just entered the upper Hunter valley, it was a perfect bluebird sky, 28 degrees C, the 4WD was on cruise control and the traffic was nearly non-existent.  Tex Perkins and the cruel sea were mumbling on about a black stick, and I was in bliss - heading for home after a fortnight working in the dust and flies of a remote mining town.  I noticed a very solid elapid on the road verge, and hoped it would still be there when I turned the vehicle around . . .   

I guess you should be careful what you wish for - because unfortunately he was still there - dead as a doornail - right on the side line of the road.  

Notice the head is fairly similar to the size of the neck? It's been run-over by a car, so it's a little deformed, and this is a large, quite old adult specimen. If it was a smaller snake, it's head would be a lot more "delicately-built".

In life, if this snake was really defensive (and it doesn't take much to make an Eastern brown snake VERY defensive), it would flatten it's neck out quite a lot - which gives rise to the name of it's genus - "Pseudonaja".  By the way, "Naja" is the genus for cobras - hence it is quite well described as a "pseudo-cobra".  Pretty good description, because its hood looks a little like a cobra when it's really, really annoyed, except our Brown snakes are about 1,000 times faster, more deadly and vastly more agile than a cobra.      

       

Here's what the ventral surface looks like - the yellow belly with orange spots is fairly characteristic of Eastern brown snakes.  

Final point - the red flesh protruding from the snakes' anus above is not intestine - they are hemipenes - yes - male snakes have two penises.  Lizards do too.  If you zoom in on the hemipene on the top, you can clearly see the barbs and spikes on his manhood - similar to a domestic tom-cats'. 

So in closing, this was a very large, very old male Eastern brown snake.  A wild guess, he would have been around 20 years of age, and a real survivor.  Such a sad way for a magnificent animal to end his days.     

Golden crowned snake

 

I was very pleasantly surprised to find one of my favourite snakes out and about this week.  I was on my evening walk with my dog, and encountered a gorgeous Golden crowned snake out hunting, just after dark, in a small patch of bushland near Casa da Ayre in Belmont North.  They are nocturnal and quite common in the general area. I have encountered a few in Belmont North over the years while out for an evening walk.  Because they are nocturnal, most locals wouldn't know they were present.      

While this species is a venomous elapid, they are usually very reluctant indeed to try to bite. Instead they tend to bluff their way out an encounter by posturing and bluff striking with their mouths firmly closed.  If that fails, they'll thrash wildly away from the threat as fast as they can. If you pick one up, they have a bright orange belly, and will readily smear a foul-smelling secretion all over your hand and fingers. 

I have never known one to try to bite, but they certainly could if you picked one up. They are simply interested in running away as fast as possible and pose zero threat to people.  They are thought to feed mostly on skinks, small dragons and frogs, so allegedly their venom is very mild. Most people would have a reaction similar to a bee or wasp sting, but as with all snakes, it's best not to find out. 

I kept my dog well back, took a few quick voucher photos with my phone and stamped my feet a couple of times.  The snake simply glided away back into the undergrowth to resume hunting.  Beautiful !