snake sizes

[Thor1]

hey i was just wondering about sizes of snakes, in particular pythons.
obviously the scrub is the bighgest but i am curious about other pythons
sizes . if someone would be so kind as to provide me with a list preferably from largest to smallest with average and largest recorded,or believed, lengths it would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

 

[junglepython2]

Theres a lot of snakes mate, probably best looking at one of the field guides such as cogger or Wilson if you want a comprhensive list.

But olives are also very large and then probably coastals and the oenpelliensis.
At the smaller end would be your pygmy python and then your children, mac and stimpson group. With the rest somewhere in-between.

 

[junglepython2]

The above list was only for pythons by the way

 

[hornet]

what would the maximum size for a well fed female coastal?

 

[rexs1]

overseas they have reports of 12 ft coastals

 

[swampie]

I have seen wild coastals in south east Qld that would have been 12 ft or more .

 

[rexs1]

the biggest we have seen around the sunny coast was a 10 ft male west of nambour
nick

 

[swampie]

All the large coastals i have seen were around sunny coast hinterland , there's some big old stonkers out that way . Some i have found have'nt been real long (maybe 8-9 ft) but very girthy things with massive heads .

 

[C'baoth]

I had one on my deck at Peregian Beach that was every bit of 12 ft .

 

[Thor1]

so the length of olives would be up to????

 

[hornet]

6m i think, well thats wat it says in the field guide to reptiles of australia

 

[herptrader]

Have a look at Rick Shine's care sheet at the Herp Shop.

http://herpshop.com.au -> "links & care sheets" -> "Size and Breeding Information for Australian Snakes by Rick Shine reproduced from the Apendix of "Australian Snakes - A Natural History""

 

[Tanny]

Have seen coastal carpets in the wild, and in captivity, around Townsville at 12ft plus, massive boofy heads on them. Saw olives, while growing up in the pilbara, that were at least 6m. Some huge scrubby's south of Cairns and into the Atherton Tablelands, one at the back of my folks place measured 22ft 4in. He was relocated further into the rainforest to stay out of harm's way from some of the ignorant farmers. There is a skin up there, not a slough, from one that measured just under 24 ft. When I saw it the people that had it did get a huge serve about killing it. :evil:

 

[cris]

IMO a 6.5m olive(from encyclopedia of Australian Animals - Reptiles by Harald Ehman) would possibly be bigger than a 8.5m scrubby and i doubt ppl have seen the biggest of either species. Aboriginals say that oenpelli(?) rock pythons have reached huge lengths even longer than scrubbies.
I you havnt seen it yet i posted an article that claims a carpet snake over 5.5m. I have also heard of a coastal carpet eating adult domestic(american?) turkeys that measured 4.5m when measured dead. Biggest i have seen would be around 3.5m and i have seen a number that would be over 3m.
I think you would have to be foolish to think that ppl have recorded the largest possible sizes for any snake in the limited data records are based on. For eg. the 8.5m scrubbie would have grown since being measured if it didnt die. Not to mention the millions of snakes that have lived there lives without ever being seen by a human.

 

[Sdaji]

Many people claim to have 12-14' carpet pythons, but I remain sceptical. I've seen many so called 14' carpets which when measured properly are around 7-9' in length. I've seen three or four carpets which were genuinely over 10', the largest being a little over 11'.

John Weigel has probably seen more carpets than most, he went on a big search for genuine 10'+ carpets. I think he managed to find about eight genuine ones after searching hard, although he came across countless claims. (If someone knows the details, please post them).

Perhaps the main reason people make exaggerated claims is ego/wishful thinking, but one of the others is the misconception that a snake's slough is the same length as the snake it came from. I have a couple of carpets which have sloughs in excess of 5 metres, but the actual animals are more like 3m.

I think the largest genuine record of Australian Scrub Python size is about 6.5m, which isn't much different from several reports of large Pilbara Olives. Considering that many, many more Scrubbies are sighted than Pilbara Olives, it could be that the Olives actually grow longer.

 

[cris]

In Encyclopedia of Australian Animals - Reptiles by Harald Ehman It says the longest measured scrubby was 8.5m, i guess its still just typing on a page but i think its credible.

In my experience ppl actually tend to under estimate the length of snakes when genuinly trying to guess, but there would also be alot of 'fishermans tales' too...

 

[Sdaji]

Many people (including myself) believe the 8.5m Scrubby to be a questionable story. I believe that snake had its length published three times, each time the length increased dramatically!

I think it's more than fair to say that when people report the lengths of snakes, they average far above what the snakes actually were. Ask any snake catcher who gets to hear the report on the phone before going and seeing the snake for himself, or go to the local pub and talk to people about the snakes they've seen - you'll notice that the average length of the snakes they see is larger than the recorded maximums for the respective species :lol:

 

[elapid68]

I'll have to agree with you there John, I had a car yard ring me last summer telling me he had a tiger snake in the yard and said it was every inch of 7 foot. Ummm, 7 foot tiger on a 35 deg day, sounds fun. Most people are shocking at estimating snake lenghts.

 

[Sdaji]

:lol:

What did 7' turn into?

What's the largest tiger snake you've seen around Melbourne by the way? I must have seen hundreds of them, the largest was a bit over 5', only a few have been over 4.5', most of the adults have been 100-120cm or so, but the average length in the stories I hear is about 6-8' and some people try to convince me they've seen them up to 14' long :lol: Most people seem to consider 4' to be a small one

I've seen a couple of captives which must have been close to 6', maybe just over. I think my largest one was about 4.5', but I don't think I ever measured them properly. I miss my old tigers I haven't had any for years. I'll have to get some babies next season

 

[elapid68]

It turned out to be a little of 4 foot long, what's 3 feet between friends .
I'd have to say the biggest wild N.scutatus I've seen would be around the 5 foot mark and like you the biggest captive was about 6 foot.
On the other hand 5 foot was the average size of the wild N.a.serventyi that I've seen and the biggest was well over the 6 foot mark. It must have been a good season on the Island as these suckers were fat as well.