# Please help identify snake from shed skin!



## Niall Scott (Jan 17, 2018)

Good morning, newbie here!

I need your expert advice to identify a snake from it's shed skin. To give you the background briefly:

We live in the northern Brisbane inner burbs (Stafford Heights) about 8 K's north from the city centre. 
We've lived in our house for 6 years and never seen or found any evidence of snakes in our yard.

Over the past 5 weeks i've found shed a single snake skin once a week in our garden on the lawn near a garden bed which has large well established trees and leaf litter and mulch with some ground cover plants in the undergrowth. 

The shed skins i've found (photos attached) are approx. 20 to 30cm long. From my non existent knowledge of snakes i'd have to assume they were from a baby or juvenile snake.
I showed one of them to a guy in work and he reckoned it was from a brown snake based purely on the width of scales on the belly. 

From some google images searches i'm not sure if it could be a brown tree snake, eastern brown, red bellied black... or anything else for that matter(?!)

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?? (excuse the pun!) Should I get someone in to try and find it or them and get it removed (especially if it is a brown snake as I have a 5 year old son who loves to play in the yard).... any help or advice would be hugely appreciated! Sorry for the long winded first post guys n' gals!

cheers
Niall


----------



## Bl69aze (Jan 17, 2018)

Looks like an EB to me... but so does everything that’s brown :/

What I can tell you is it’s not a python 

Do you think by looking at it, it could flatten it’s head/bit of its neck?
If so it’s a red belly, if not it could indeed be an EB

Size would tell me BTS


----------



## Scutellatus (Jan 17, 2018)

From the looks of the eye caps it appears to be a Brown/Green Tree Snake. If it is, it is nothing to worry about.

Some members with experience in the field will be able to give you a definite identification.


----------



## GBWhite (Jan 17, 2018)

I agree with Scutellatus it's a tree snake and from what I can make of the scale count behind the head I'm inclined to go with Common (Green) Tree Snake.


----------



## Pauls_Pythons (Jan 17, 2018)

Bl69aze said:


> Looks like an EB to me... but so does everything that’s brown :/
> 
> What I can tell you is it’s not a python
> 
> ...



I'm not trying to be the internet police or the APS Nazi here but please @Bl69aze if you don't know please dont comment, especially in situations like this where someone is concerned for the safety of their children. It just throws confusion into the midst and might lead to incorrect/unnecessary action being taken.
Sorry I don't want you to think I'm being unfair but we need to do the poster the courtesy of giving the best information we can based on the experience of the members who are not just making a guess.

Niall, you can be fairly confident from the other responses that it is likely a tree snake.


----------



## cement (Jan 17, 2018)

Also Niall, if you haven't had any snakes around for quite a while then the prey they eat has built up it's population. 
Now the predator has found them, and will clean them up, and when he's run out of food, he'll move onto the next lot, leaving you snake free again.


----------



## Niall Scott (Jan 24, 2018)

Thank you all so much for your responses and most helpful information so far, it is very much appreciated! 
[doublepost=1516743738,1516160168][/doublepost]








[doublepost=1516744047][/doublepost]Well, our old friend is back and getting bigger! I found this quite fresh shed skin on the lawn early yesterday evening (around 6.30pm) on the lawn under a large tree. Which is very close to the area most of the other skins have been found too. 
This one was a bit bigger and longer (aprox. 45cm) and the tail was broken off as you can see in the photo of the complete skin on an upturned laundry basket. It was also full of ants.

I'd be very interested to hear your opinions on what snake this is and if the previous general consensus of brown tree snake is still the case or not. Look forward to hearing from you guys, and thanks for looking! 
cheers
Niall


----------



## Scutellatus (Jan 24, 2018)

It looks to be another Brown/Green Tree snake Niall. For your own future reference you should take note of the eye sizes. Brown/GreenTree snakes have enlarged eyes to help with night hunting, it is a great base identifier for this species.
Maybe if @GBWhite has one, he could post a pic of an Eastern Brown snake skin to give you a comparison of eye sizes.


----------



## Niall Scott (Jan 24, 2018)

Very good point Scutellatus, thanks for pointing that out. I've just compared the two species on google images to see the difference in eye size, quite noticeable indeed. It would be great to see a photo of similar sized eastern brown skin too. 
All responses and info very much appreciated


----------



## Bluetongue1 (Jan 27, 2018)

The first slough looks like a CTS while the second one looks more like a BTS. If you can locate the vent on the slough, the last belly scale before the opening is the anal scale. If the anal scale is single it’s a BTS, while if it is divided it’s a CTS.

Following is an article I started write several years ago as editor of our Herp society newsletter but passed those duties before I used it. So I up-dated it from Word 7 Vista and finished it - a total pain learning how to do it in Word 10. Sorry if it is abit long…

*Distinguishing Pythons, Elapids and Colubrids*​Pythons from Elapids & Colubrids
*Pythons:* ventral scales NOT FULL body width; HIGH number of mid-body dorsal scales (= more than 30).
*Elapids &* *Colubrids:* ventral scales FULL WIDTH of body; LOW number of mid-body dorsal scales (= less than 25).
​
Colubrids from Elapids
*Colubrids:* Possess a LOREAL SCALE.
*Elapids: *Do NOT have a loreal scale.

The Loreal Scale
· The *nasal scale* refers to the scale that encloses the nostril. Sometimes this scale is paired (divided). In such cases, the anterior half is referred to as the *prenasal* and the posterior half is referred to as the *postnasal*.
· Scales that directly surround the eye but are not part of the lip scales (labial scales) or the enlarged scales on top of the head (heads shields) are called *ocular scales*.
· A scales located between a preocular scale and the nasal (or postnasal) scale, which prevents these two from coming into direct contact, is called the *loreal *scale.

​


----------



## Channaz (Feb 10, 2018)

Great summary Bluetongue!


----------

