Something different - a Western brown snake, Myall snakes and more

 

I was working in a remote mining town in outback NSW for the last couple of weeks, and encountered this beautiful Western brown snake sunning itself by the side of the road late in the afternoon.     

Until recently this species was known as the Western Brown snake, Pseudonaja nuchalis but has now been reclassified as the "Strap-snouted Brown Snake" Pseudonaja aspidorhyncha.  Reclassifying old familiar species seems to be happening ever more frequently, and I'm not sure it's always warranted.  The common name bestowed on this majestic species just doesn't seem fitting to me.  Regardless of what you call them, these are a dangerously venomous species and are extremely fast, defensive and most definitely not to be molested.      

Speaking of interesting snakes, I noticed that Myall snakes, Suta suta were also quite common in the area.  While these inoffensive snakes are venomous, as long as you don't try to pick them up, they are inoffensive and harmless.  If you do pick them up, you had better know what you are doing because they will readily bite, and allegedly they pack a wallop.  

An inoffensive Myall snake alongside my size 14 boot for scale.  The snake ignored me completely, allowing me to take a couple of photos before I moved on, leaving it to its road basking.  The area is so remote that there was little risk from traffic to the snake.  

I also observed several Green tree frogs, numerous Tessellated geckos, several road killed Bearded dragons (sadly, one was a gravid female that left eggs all over the road) and a blind snake on the same night.  I didn't bother to identify the blind snake as you have to handle them to count scales to identify them properly, and they pack a decent defensive stink excretion.      

     

   

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.     

A big rustle in the bushes . . .

 I have been out of town for work for the last few weeks, and truly relished the perfect spring weather that greeted me when I returned.  It was a weekend of endless blue skies and warm days - in the high 20 degrees.  A friend & I wanted to catch up, so we rode our mountain bikes around the quiet trails in Glenrock reserve.  We were having a break when "something" was disturbed by our presence, and took off through the dry undergrowth at a rate of knots.  My friend was really worried about a snake - but smiled when I pointed to the culprit watching us from a nearby tree.  

Lace monitors are still common in the area, right here on the coast despite the rapidly expanding population moving to Lake Macquarie.  Nice to see a Lace monitor in the bush doing it's thing, so very close to my home - rather than sad road pizza.     

   

New-born Red-bellied black snake

 

I was walking the dogs in Belmont North last night and found yet another snake freshly killed, dead on the road (DOR).  This time, the unfortunate snake was a new-born Red-bellied black snake, Pseudechis porphyriacus. 

I've kept many of this species over the years, and found them very interesting animals.  Intelligent, very robust in captivity and very reluctant to bite.  In captivity though, you really need to be careful not to become blasé with them, as they are highly poisonous if they do bite, and they are absolute PIGS when it comes to feeding time.  

It is interesting for a lot of non-herpetologists to realise that Red-bellied blacksnakes usually do not have red-bellies !  The "red-belly" is usually just a couple of rows of scales on the edges of the belly.  Often the belly is much paler, and even WHITE !  You might notice that the scales under the tail, past the cloaca (fancy word meaning anus) are black.  I have never seen a Red-bellied black snake without a black tail like this - even newborn snakes like this one are black beneath the tail.  It's very hard to see in this image, because the snake's head has been crushed, but the tip of it's nose will almost always have a brown tip.       

Speaking of colours, this snake has an orange coloured belly - and if you didn't know - looks almost exactly the same as the colour on the belly of the Golden-crowned snake two posts back.           

Rough-scaled snake flavoured road-pizza

 

Here's a Rough-scaled snake, with a crushing headache, just north of the Mungo Brush camping area. Its probably been dead on the road for at least a week, but even in death, its keeled scales show it is unmistakeably a Rough-scaled snake (Tropidechis carinatus).  I know it's a gory photo, but it is important as a voucher specimen. 

The map above is from the Atlas of Living Australia, and the record in the water is actually one I submitted THIRTY YEARS AGO this month. I found it freshly dead on the road, and lodged the carefully preserved specimen with the Australian Museum.  I must have entered the location easting with a typo, as it was actually on the road immediately to the east (where the other record is).  This was the southern-most record of the species for decades.  The next most southerly record was Gloucester Tops, well to the North-west.  The Newcastle herpetological community knew about the Rough-scaled snakes at Mungo for many years before I lodged my specimen, but it was an extremely tightly kept secret. I copped a lot of flack from my mates at the time for "blowing the whistle" on them.       

Looking at it these days, it seems no-one keeps anything secret. There has been a spate of new records for the species, and the southern-most record is now Patonga !  

For the non-herpetologist, the Rough-scaled snake is a fascinating little beastie.  In NSW, they tend not to get as large as other elapids.  Around 1.2 m or so seems to pull most of them up.  They are extremely alert, quite fast, and usually very lively to handle.  They have large fangs and if you are unlucky enough to get bitten, they have a unique venom.  It's venom is related to tiger snakes, and will be neutralised by tiger snake antivenom.  It has a unique property - most people bitten will pass out briefly within minutes of being bitten.  Once the person regains consciousness shortly afterwards, envenomation proceeds much like a tiger snake bite.  Definitely one you do not want to get bitten by !               

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 !