# can someone id this please?



## bloodfiredeath (Nov 2, 2012)

thanks guys


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## CaptainRatbag (Nov 2, 2012)

keelback? a bit hard to tell from that pic? what is the locality of where the shot was taken? might help


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## woody101 (Nov 2, 2012)

Keelback


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## jase75 (Nov 2, 2012)

It's a Keelback.


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## bloodfiredeath (Nov 3, 2012)

thanks guys


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## Sleazy.P.Martini (Nov 3, 2012)

Why is it a keelback?


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## Ramsayi (Nov 3, 2012)

furiousgeorge said:


> Why is it a keelback?


 Because that's what it's mummy and daddy were ?


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## Sleazy.P.Martini (Nov 3, 2012)

Haha fair enough. I meant more why do people think that? Identifying features?


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## Sissy (Nov 3, 2012)

Cause it looks dang ger ous... defs a do not touch...


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## Ramsayi (Nov 3, 2012)

SissysMum said:


> Cause it looks dang ger ous... defs a do not touch...



Only to frogs etc


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## saximus (Nov 3, 2012)

SissysMum said:


> Cause it looks dang ger ous... defs a do not touch...



Except Keelbacks aren't dangerous. Or did an inside joke just go over my head :?

George, the identifiying features for me personally were the pattern, the big, dark eye and the typical Keelback "smile"


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## Sleazy.P.Martini (Nov 3, 2012)

I agree it is a keelback, I only asked because I recognized it as opposed to using features to identify it. If that makes sense


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## Bluetongue1 (Nov 4, 2012)

*furiousgeorge*, there are those who identify on sight alone and those that identify according to the presence of diagnostic features. Having said that, sight recognition invariably plays a big part in the initial process of identification of those that look for diagnostic features. I know which ID I'd be more comfortable with.

There are only two snakes with that have that sort of pattern and colour combined with strongly keeled dorsal scales… the Rough-scaled Snake and the Keelback. I believe that the photo is of a Keelback (_Tropidonophis mairii_). Based on pattern and colour alone, at a glance one could quite easily identify this snake as a Rough–scaled Snake. However, the degree of irregularity of the banding along the lateral areas is typical of Keelbacks, whereas Rough-scaled Snakes are much more consistent in their bands. The presence of a loreal scale is not quite discernible under magnification. What can be seen is the dark edges on the upper labial scales, particularly those below the eye, which do not occur with Rough-scaled Snakes. In addition, jaws of Keelbacks exhibit an upwards curve at the joint, as apparent in the photo, whereas Rough-scales have a straight jaw line. The relative size of the eye has been mentioned as Keelbacks do have a proportionately larger eye than Rough-scaled Snakes. Without a reference measure this can be problematic in using as a diagnostic feature.

Blue


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## CaptainRatbag (Nov 4, 2012)

Coz when I looked at it, I thunk it was a keelback, so I googled keelback and the picture looked just like it :lol:


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