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 !                

Yet another Asian house gecko in Belmont, Lake Macquarie, NSW

 

Juvenile Asian house gecko - Belmont, Lake Macquarie NSW

I was on my evening walk last night, and stopped by the public building where I've previously observed Asian house geckos in the last few weeks.  Thankfully it was a much cooler day.  Walking was actually pleasant again, as the humidity was far lower and the early evening was significantly cooler.  Likely the temperature was somewhere in the low 20 degrees Celsius. 

A sub-adult Asian house gecko was foraging under a light in the same spot as the previous two.  This individual is nearly twice the size of the juvenile I observed previously, so they are very definitely happily breeding here. 

Again, I only had my (failing) mobile phone with me, and I was able to grab a single voucher image from 20 feet away, before the gecko disappeared into the cavity next to its' head.  This gecko was surprisingly vigilant, reacting to my presence when I first stopped to scan the area - about 30 feet away.  I fished my phone out of my pocket and crept forwards, zooming in as much as I could.  I took one image before the gecko zoomed into the holes in the bricks next to its' head. No other geckos were active.              

Asian house gecko population is breeding

 It was hot & sticky day yesterday, (Friday 2nd Feb 2024) and the temperature reached a typical summer time mid-30's.  It was still in the high twenties and very humid that night.  My wife & I decided to take the girls for a walk as it had cooled enough to be tolerable, and we all needed to stretch our legs. 

We walked past the same building I observed the Asian house gecko in the previous post.  Naturally I checked to see if it was out, and instead there was small, likely 12 month old juvenile in the same place.  This gecko was extremely shy, and rapidly scurried into a crevice as soon as my torch beam touched him, despite being ten feet off the ground. Unfortunately, neither of us had our phones, so couldn't get a voucher photo - but it was unmistakeably an Asian house gecko and this record indicates they are definitely breeding here in Belmont. 

I'll drop past again later in the week while the warm weather keeps up, and see if I can get a decent photo. 

Addendum - I was working in the backyard this afternoon (Saturday 3rd Feb 24) and heard the unmistakeable daytime chirp of another Asian house gecko.  Further evidence that they are well established here now !         

Observation of the Asian House gecko, (Hemidactylus frenatus) in Belmont

 

Four years ago I observed an Asian house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) on our home here in Belmont, Lake Macquarie NSW.  Uploaded the record to the Atlas of Living Australia as it had a bit of importance at the time to document the invasion wave of this introduced species of reptile.  I was quite familiar with Asian house geckos as I spent some years living in Darwin in the NT - where they are absolutely endemic. 

I had been sporadically hearing their characteristic day-time chirp, and thinking "Hey ! That sounded like a bloody Asian house gecko (!?!?!?!?!) but can't have been because there are no records of them around here".  I figured it had to have been the call of some little SJB bird ("Small-Brown-Jobby" for the non-twitchers) that I have not learned yet.  Well, surprise !  There are records of Asian house geckos here now.      

That was four years ago nearly to the damn day.  I was walking my dogs last night and noticed my second specimen for this neighbourhood.  I grabbed a quick image with my phone to prove my identification.  Because of the poor lighting, the photos are very poor - but it is unmistakeably an Asian house gecko with a regenerated tail-tip, hunting under the lights of a public building near my home.

Although they are an introduced species, and carry risks of parasites & exotic diseases, I don't see this as a huge big deal.  They are exploiting an environmental niche not filled by anything else locally.  It is not like there are Lesueur's velvet geckos, Robust velvet geckos or broad-tailed geckos taking insects under the lights of buildings anywhere near here.  Sure, there will be small numbers in leafy remote suburbs like Martinsville, but I have lived here most of my life and NEVER seen a single native gecko hunting under lights in the Lake Macquarie area.  Asian house geckos will have an impact - as all introduced species of plants or animals do.  But at least they are not poisonous to our native fauna like cane toads are.  In fact they might help reduce the insect loads a little.  I guess we'll have to watch and see - there is no possibility of getting rid of them now.