Common Cat Snake at ACCC campus: Rainy day

Common Cat Snake at ACCC campus: Rainy day

                                                                                                                    -Thalavai pandi S

I was working on the computer  and my mobile phone was ringing, it’s a call from our friendly gardener Thiraviam who encountered the small coiled snake in the dead tree at our garden while cleaning the bushes.  I went to the spot and used a snake hook to lift the snake and put it in a safe place for taking photos.  I used a tiny stick to make the snake in horizontal position, the snake gave warning by striking its body and vibrating it's tail. I took enough photos of the snake and released it in the same spot.  

Some other general information about this snake

It has long, thin and laterally flattened body with smooth scales.

Head distinctly broader than neck.

Large eye has vertical pupil.

Long-tail.

Top of the head has distinct 'Y' shaped mark.

This snake often mistaken for the Saw-scaled viper.

Nocturnal snake spends the day among bushes, thatched roofs, under tree bark and stones. It is an excellent climber.

Rear-fanged. Mild venom can paralyze small prey like lizards, mice and small birds

It has a sensitive tongue which helps to detect sleeping lizards. (I have witnessed this behaviour from my friends’ photographs which taken during their night walk nearer to our campus. They observed the cat snake without disturbing it, the snake was hunting the Garden Lizard which was sleeping on a rock.  The snake killed the lizard by injecting venom and by construction, after killing the prey the snake started swallowing it from its head.)