# snake ID



## reptilerob (Mar 21, 2010)

Firstly, i appologise for posting a photo of a dead snake, like most people here i much prefer to find live ones, but my wife and I found this dead small snake in one of our herping areas, and we are not 100% sure what it is.
Personally, i believe its a baby eastern brown snake, but my wife believes that eastern browns this size are usually much lighter in colour, and can have darker patterns, which i also know is true.
If you look closely you can see the head is slightly darker than the rest of its body. Could it be a baby copperhead? I have only seen 1 baby brown in my life and it was very light brown, almost yellow. I have seen a few baby blacks, and a baby copperhead and they were the same colours as the adults.
The snake is about 30-35cm long, and about 15km NW of mt beauty in NE victoria. In this area we have found RBBS, highland copperheads, tiger snakes and eastern browns.
If anybody can tell us what it is it would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Robbie.


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## boogeralby (Mar 21, 2010)

Hi mate,

Thats a white lipped snake.


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## reptilerob (Mar 21, 2010)

WOW i never knew they were even in the area!!! Are you confident of this? if so this is quite exciting for me. Next time i stay up there we will go out at night with a portable spotlight, although that may not be until after winter now as the nights are getting very cool up there in the foothills of the alps.
Thanks heaps mate.


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## Jonno from ERD (Mar 21, 2010)

G'day Rob,

boogeralby is right - it's a White Lipped Snake, _Drysdalia coronoides._


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## Snake Catcher Victoria (Mar 21, 2010)

I got called out to one yesterday that had been munched on by a cat.
Didnt make it.
I dont see why they shouldnt be found around Wangaratta


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## reptilerob (Mar 21, 2010)

Thanks fellas. Rett82 is staying at her parents in mt beauty until wednesday, so i will tell her on the phone tomorrow. She will be quite excited.
Over the summer months, we got 3 or 4 really quick glimpses of snakes basking on the warm road after sunset, but couldnt see what they were. They were all small, between 30 and 50cm maybe smaller and took off really quickly. One was near wangaratta, and the rest mt beauty. At the time i thought they must have been baby tigers or eastern browns, but now that i know these white lipped snakes are around here that has opened up another, more likely possibility.
Thanks heaps fellas.


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## Asharee133 (Mar 21, 2010)

rob, if u need a good place to herp, try the foothills of buffalo, like around nug nug and buff lake and on the top at the chalet theres a heap of crevice skinks, they are fun  only when they sorta dont poop and piddle all down your arm...


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## reptilerob (Mar 21, 2010)

Thanks Asharee, we love that area too. We were almost going to geo to mt buffalo last week when i had a day off, but ended up somewhere else instead!!!


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## eipper (Mar 22, 2010)

Def Drysdalia coronoides, very common in that part of vic especially once you get into the higher altitudes

Cheers,
Scott


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## saratoga (Mar 22, 2010)

You shouldn't need a spotlight to find them...they are very active during the day and are more cold tolerant than any other australian snake.


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## Snake Catcher Victoria (Mar 22, 2010)

saratoga said:


> You shouldn't need a spotlight to find them...they are very active during the day and are more cold tolerant than any other australian snake.


 Here on the peninsula, they are the first snakes we get called to at the start of the season and last ones to be called to at the end of the season.
Generally...


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## varanid_mike (Mar 22, 2010)

That’s a nice looking white lip, they are also very common around the yarra valley and dandy ranges. We get a lot of purple ones around here and are an amazing snake to work with. We had one give birth after a snake job to 5 little ones, they are tiny and very interesting, pity they are so hard to get in captivity.


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## froggyboy86 (Mar 23, 2010)

They are beautiful snakes, I see them often around the Snowy Mountains. More often dead than alive though. 

Aaron


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