Psammophis ???

[MrG]

What type of whip snake you think this is ?
Found it on a call-out at Hartbeeshoek this afternoon.

[Mongoose]

P.breviostris

[Bushviper]

Looks like a pretty skinny and wierd coloured Short snouted grass snake to me.

[Rob]

Top pic is a bit misleading, bottom pics says P. brevirostrus to me too although colour isnt typical of what we get down here.

Belly shot?

[Bushviper]

Rob I agree. The top photo looks like beige snake and the bottom one looks like some gun metal colour.

The slight banded markings on the head is what tipped the scales for me. Combined with the white speckling down the vertebrae it would indicate P. brevirostris to me.

[MrG]

Same snake but different cameras. The first one's battery went dead and i used the back-up. I think you are correct that it is a P. brevirostris.
Thanks

[RedGhecko]

Yes I know this topic is 7 years old and I feel real stupid posting this but this is an interesting one. . . Its in fact a young Olive Grass snake (P. mossambicus). They are very often confused with P. brevirostris especially because of the pattern down the vertebrae. The reason I'm posting this is not to be a "know it all" but rather so that other members can learn from this.

Regards

[Bushviper]

Yeah P mossambicus do not occur in this area. No chance of that being a Olive grass snake as this is a few hundred kilometers outside its range.

[RedGhecko]

If I'm correct this snake was found at hartbeeshoek which is well within this snakes range, in-fact P. mossambicus is distributed throughout the whole northern half of Gauteng.

[Bushviper]

Hartbeeshoek is almost in North West just north of Krugersdorp. This species does not occur anywhere near there.

When in doubt consult the most recent scientific maps.

[RedGhecko]

When last was that map updated? Anyway heres a distribution map from Graham Alexanders book, A Guide to the Reptiles of Southern Africa. Now Hartbeeshoek is well within this range.

[RedGhecko]

Sorry, that image is very small but you should be able to see that most of Gauteng including North West is included in this species' distribution.

[Bushviper]

Yeah I think the SARCA map is updated on a continuous basis because that is what its function is. The map is the same as the one requested on [ Page served: January 17, 2014, 10:40 +0200] © Animal Demography Unit 2014 Department of Biological Sciences - University of Cape Town.

[RedGhecko]

I recently checked one of my older Field Guides and the distribution map in there was similar to SARCA's one. The newer books though clearly show that extra strip of distribution through Gauteng. I'm still highly convinced that that is indeed a young Olive. The snake above is too plain for P. brevirostris

[Bushviper]

Without DNA we will never know. It could just be a plain looking brevirostris or indeed a range extension.