Request for help from non-member

[lutzd]

Received the following email yesterday. Can anyone help??

"Hi I am in Ipswich SE Qld. I walked out my front door this morning to find what appeared to be a baby snake about 30-45 cm long shiny black with a yellow ring around its neck.

Any ideas what types this is. I know browns & red belly blacks as we avoid them regularly but I have never encountered a black shiny with yellow ring on neck.

Help would be appreciated as I have a small child and if something happened I could tell the hospital what it may be.

Elizabeth"

 

[instar]

A wild guss maybe gold crowned snake ???? :?
http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/golden_crowned_snake.htm

maybe yellow faced whip snake, but i dont know its range.
just tell her its harmless and leave the poor bloody thing alone!

 

[rodentrancher]

Hey Inny, doesn't sound like the golden crowned one, going by your link? Did she say shiny black with yellow ring around the neck? I don't know what a whip snake looks like.

 

[geckodan]

In that area I would also consider a Verreauxs Skink . Shiny chocolate to black with a half crescent gold band around the back of the head. Vestigial legs difficult to see from a distance.

 

[snake6p]

Could also be a Dwarf Crowned Snake going by a book i'm looking at.

 

[Dicco]

My bet's on a Verreaux's, crowned snake really arn't that shiny, and Verreaux's are as common as dirt here in Ippy, here's a pic

 

[rodentrancher]

So is that a Skink Dicko? Has real tiny legs n feet eh? Cheers

 

[Dicco]

Lol, yes, it is a skink RR, they are mainly found in loose soil/grass clippings or under rocks & garden edges thus the small limbs, but have also seen them crawling across the grass early in the morning.

 

[rodentrancher]

Don't get those down here in the Riverland, but if we have a party out under our Pepper Tree, lots of legless lizards come out amongst all the feet in the dirt, and all the sheilas freak out thinking they are little snakes. :lol: