Help needed to identify snake skin

[Bass4500]

Hi,
I live in suburban Wollongong NSW on a big bushy block near Mt Keira and yesterday we found an entire snake skin on a sunny step on the council strip with the following characteristics:
skin length ~ 40 cm
dorsal scale rows at midbody = 15
ventral scales = 92
subcaudal scales = 65-66
subcaudals entirely divided posterior of vent
anal scale divided

At the front of our yard we have a Council built crib-block retaining wall 2 m high holding up the road (we live on the low side of the street). Rats live in the crib-block wall which is south facing and heavily vegetated with fish bone ferns and extends across 4 lots. We also have lots of rainforest trees in the front and back yards and possums, birds etc. Have attached some photos of the skin. Any thoughts on identity would be much appreciated. We have two young kids (7 and 3).
Cheers
Bass4500

 

[veenarm]

Coming from Mt Keira, Keiraville area as a kid, only snakes I had ever seen in the wild were RBB and Diamond Python...
Think we saw a brown once, but that was near the creek of at the bottom of mt keira (near Koloona Ave).
Not sure how well some experts can gauge from the skin though... the head piece didn't look like it came off cleanly

 

[waruikazi]

Without the shed from the head it will be an educated guess.

You are just within the range of the golden crowned snake. If your scale count is accurate then this is a definate possibility.

The shed is from an egg laying species and the wide ventral scales indicate it is an elapid. It is too fat for a whip snake, mid body count is too low for a brown or marsh snake, the tail (i think) is too skinny for a bandy bandy and there is no pattern.

 

[veenarm]

I was also going to say it doesn't look like a diamond pythons skin sheds that I've seen... but thats my extent waruikazi nice work

 

[$NaKe PiMp]

Hi,
I live in suburban Wollongong NSW on a big bushy block near Mt Keira and yesterday we found an entire snake skin on a sunny step on the council strip with the following characteristics:
skin length ~ 40 cm
dorsal scale rows at midbody = 15
ventral scales = 92
subcaudal scales = 65-66
subcaudals entirely divided posterior of vent
anal scale divided

At the front of our yard we have a Council built crib-block retaining wall 2 m high holding up the road (we live on the low side of the street). Rats live in the crib-block wall which is south facing and heavily vegetated with fish bone ferns and extends across 4 lots. We also have lots of rainforest trees in the front and back yards and possums, birds etc. Have attached some photos of the skin. Any thoughts on identity would be much appreciated. We have two young kids (7 and 3).
Cheers
Bass4500

View attachment 196848View attachment 196847View attachment 196846View attachment 196845View attachment 196844

omg

im curious you have all that knowledge on gathering very useful information on exact scale counts and descriptions of anal scale and subcaudals but are putting it to a jury of APS peers to discuss what it is??
you probably have a very good idea already am i right?

ive gone through a list of what species are local and if this is a local species with that scale count of 15 and divided anal and subcaudals and with out the head of the skin,
common tree snake and yellow face whip have those counts but those wide ventrals and stout body would cross those off list and i would go with
Cacophis squamulosus,the golden crowned snake by its length scale count etc all match

 

[Bass4500]

Hi all,
Thanks very much for all of your help. I am by no means a ecologist or know anything much about snakes but am a scientist (hydrologist). I came across a web site for snake skin identification this morning that required entry of dorsal scale counts, ventral scale counts, sub-caudal scale counts, anal scale ID and subcaudal scale details (divided, undivided) but when I entered this info, the program didnt work. So, I had all of these measurements so I thought I would post them on this site. I was worried it might be a brown snake as opposed to a rbb because of the divided subcaudal scales and divided anal scale. I read on an earlier thread on this site that browns and blacks have 17 scaled across the mid dorsal but had no idea if this was an exact count or if there was a range. The golden crown snake is a definite possibility after reading some more about it. I'll see if I can get a herpetologist to identify the skin - the mid-dorsal skin count at 15 I'm pretty sure is right - I had to insert a pencil into the skin to stretch it to be able to accurately count some pretty small scales along the dorsal midline. Am excited that it may not be a brown or rbb!
Thanks, cheers and happy easter everyone!
Bass4500