# Blind snake?



## Davesgonefishin (Mar 30, 2013)

This guy was just wiggling through my lounge room.
Is it a blind snake?


Live Port Douglas QLD


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## Stevo2 (Mar 30, 2013)

Davesgonefishin said:


> This guy was just wiggling through my lounge room.
> Is it a blind snake?
> View attachment 286944
> 
> Live Port Douglas QLD



Yep 


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## Davesgonefishin (Mar 30, 2013)

Yeah thought thats what it is.


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## Bluetongue1 (Mar 31, 2013)

It is unusual to get a blind snake above ground and out in the open, let alone in a house. This leads me to suspect it is likely the introduced Flowerpot Blind Snake (_Ramphotyphlops braminus_). 

These are very small animals – 12 cm average and 17 cm maximum according to the field guide. Their colour is dark purplish-brown and only slightly lighter underneath. In our known local species from that area the ventrals are significantly lighter than the dorsal colour (even though it does grade from one into the other). They are all females and reproduce parthenogenically.

*FYI:* Blind snakes have tube-like bodies that are the same diameter for the total length, small high-gloss close fitting scales, a rounded head with the upper front section jutting out over the lower section, and a rounded tail that ends in a spine. All features for burrowing and protection from ant bites. The eyes actually are two small eye spots covered (protected) by the scale. While they don’t see images, they are still sensitive to light. Most are also capable of giving off a nasty smell from a glands in the cloaca – same sort of things as the musking of turtles and common tree snakes. They also have the typical snake forked tongue. 


Blue


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## Elapidae1 (Apr 1, 2013)

I wouldn't say it's that unusual, not as common as other snakes but here in Perth the only time I have seen R. pinguis is active on the surface. I have found a number of R. australis surface active. and nearly took a leak on R. hamatus up north as it was surface active a few metres away from the car. I have also seen and heard other accounts, So they certainly move about at times.


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## Bluetongue1 (Apr 1, 2013)

How many of those occassions were during or shortly after rain? How many animals are we talking about and over what period of time? There may well be a difference between the east coast and WA sands. Over east they are mostly encountered sheltering under rocks and logs or under suitable surface debris. I have never been one for busting up termite mounds (or ants nests) but the tell me they are also found occupying the galleries of these.

Blue


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## Davesgonefishin (Apr 2, 2013)

Bluetongue1 said:


> How many of those occassions were during or shortly after rain? How many animals are we talking about and over what period of time? There may well be a difference between the east coast and WA sands. Over east they are mostly encountered sheltering under rocks and logs or under suitable surface debris. I have never been one for busting up termite mounds (or ants nests) but the tell me they are also found occupying the galleries of these.
> 
> Blue



Hey Blue. This is the 2nd one of these to come in over the last 3 months. Both times after rain. They also seem to travel a bit to do it because to get to my lounge room they have to get around the pool which is right up to my patio & then cross that to step up into my lounge room. Concrete/tile 100% of the way & a good 10+ metres of it.
I would also have to think its Flower Pot type because even though I live FNQ Port Douglas my house is pretty much smack bang in the middle of a fairly new housing estate (though it was a cane field prior to that) though we do get a few water pythons in the street.


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## Echiopsis (Apr 3, 2013)

Ramphos move around on the surface at times, it's not uncommon. Hard to breed and find food if your underground all the time. I've road cruised nigrescens on the east coast a few times and countless australis, pinguis, grypus, hamatus, ammodytes and pilbarensis in the west. Sometimes associated with rain and sometimes not. I was at a mining camp up near Tom Price a few years back and we'd watch the grypus crossing the concrete walkways while having a beer. Even snagged a ganei crossing between mine and mates chair during a wet season that hadn't yet seen any wet.


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## Bushman (Apr 3, 2013)

I agree that it looks like a Blind Snake (_Ramphotyphlops sp.). 
_I've seen _R. nigrescens _active above ground (in good numbers on rare occasions), when conditions are right for them.


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## Bluetongue1 (Apr 3, 2013)

Elapidae1 said:


> I wouldn't say it's that unusual, not as common as other snakes but here in Perth the only time I have seen R. pinguis is active on the surface. I have found a number of R. australis surface active. and nearly took a leak on R. hamatus up north as it was surface active a few metres away from the car. I have also seen and heard other accounts, So they certainly move about at times.


My apologies for not addressing your original comment. I was distracted by your observations (now reinforced by those of Echiposis). I did take poetic licence in using the term “unusual” as I was focussed on emphasising how unusual an occurrence a blindsnake inside a house was. On the east coast at least, locating them above ground is not unusual but it only happens occasionally. 

I am very intrigued by the apparent difference in behaviour between east and west and find myself wondering why this might be. I doubt it just an artefact of differences in visibility due to differing amounts and continuity of leaf litter. To be something these animals do on a regular basis, particularly in the west, one would expect it is foraging related rather than only reproductive. Could it be a difference in distribution and abundance of prey items driving it? Lots of questions and I do not know enough to come up with even a tentative answer. There is a real paucity of information about the group and that which is available seems mostly from incidental observation. I found reference to one structured field investigation and that mainly draws conclusions about prey size related to snake size. There must be more...

Blue


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## Bluetongue1 (Apr 3, 2013)

Davesgonefishin said:


> Hey Blue. This is the 2nd one of these to come in over the last 3 months. Both times after rain. They also seem to travel a bit to do it because to get to my lounge room they have to get around the pool which is right up to my patio & then cross that to step up into my lounge room. Concrete/tile 100% of the way & a good 10+ metres of it.
> I would also have to think its Flower Pot type because even though I live FNQ Port Douglas my house is pretty much smack bang in the middle of a fairly new housing estate (though it was a cane field prior to that) though we do get a few water pythons in the street.


Thanks for that info. Do you have any potted plants or a planter box or anything else containing potting mix or soil in it, in or on the same level as your lounge room? Did the description I provided earlier match your critter?


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## Davesgonefishin (Apr 4, 2013)

Bluetongue1 said:


> Thanks for that info. Do you have any potted plants or a planter box or anything else containing potting mix or soil in it, in or on the same level as your lounge room? Did the description I provided earlier match your critter?



Hey Blue

No potted plants anywhere near the entire pool/patio/lounge area. Our garden beds are raised (original owners did this) but they are along back/side fences so that adds grass in between the pool/patio etc expanse. This could however explain why/how they would have been intoduced to my yard in the first place.
Between these garden beds it is pretty much flat all the way to the door of the lounge room which is then literally only the height of the house slab above the ground.
& your description of the little guy was a nail on the head

David


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## Bluetongue1 (Apr 4, 2013)

Thanks for the info David. That puts that set of questions to bed. Somehow I think the others that were raised incidentally will not be so readily resolved. Lol.

I hope you were fortunate enough to avoid a smelly blast from the critters. I have not copped one in decades but I still remember clearly what it smells like. Not nice!

Cheers,
Blue


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