The devil arrived - M. insignitus

The snake with most character I ever have... really bad attitude
But one of the nicest

The devil arrived - M. insignitus Insign10

I think the attitude shows in the picture. We are these native to?

Yeah, Malpolon is psycho. Shocked

Quite a looker.

Cheers, Ro.

This sp. / ssp. is native to north africa and a little part of southern europe.

http://www.rear-fanged.com/malpolon.html

I got some Malpolon moilensis,too.

Will upload pics soon.

Yes,
nice and sometimes very bad! And ever you want to catch them - to fast!
One time I´ve observed the hunting behaviour of them (on cyprus). The hunt like a flash....
Very nice Genus, with the strongest eyes.

WOW ! Nice..

I keep the Genus to and they can be a handful.

I have Malpolon monspessulanus fuscus if i remember correct, two males so i'm looking for a female to buy or trade with one of my males.

Best Regards
Daniel Claesson

Realy nice colour. I like dark coloured snakes. Very similar to Coluber species.

Regards, BKK

I used to keep M. monspessulanus. Crazy things that can properly scare you even when small. Not to mention when they grow up.

Have you pictures of your specimen?

love snakes with attitude! Malpolon monspessulanus and Coluber jugularis was freaking me out in Bulgarian on a field trip, back in the early 80's! never kept some (specialized food items etc.) but they are always in my heart (can you believe that i still remembered their scientific name??)

cheers
M.

Hello Dirk,
Your Malpolon is a beauty. I absolutely like the dark ones
I fell in love with Malpolon monspessulanus / insignitus when I got my first ones – 6, hatchling-size, wc – from Tunisia in 1969, sand-colored, by far not as beautiful as yours. They ate pinkies from the first day, were calm from the second day and tame within a few days. Whenever I opened the terrarium, they would come towards me, crawl on my hands and later arms and shoulders. And each of them was a personality of her own. Their offspring behaved in the same way, most of them took pinkies from the beginning, causing much less feeding problems than many cornsnakes.
I later had a similar experience with one big (2,2m) wc. specimen from Morocco (calming down within a few days but never getting as tame as my others) and some (fuscus) that I took home from Dalmatia for watching them in a terrarium for a while (releasing them again later where I had caught them). They fought viciously when I caught them but already after a day in a bag (for transport) there was hardly any defense left when I handled them. Only a half grown one from Montenegro did not calm down at all.
Like Peter writes, catching them is a challenge, mostly leaving you as the loser. If you can catch one it´s mostly by luck.
In Dalmatia I could watch a big one hunting and catching a young rabbit and a smaller one (about 1,2m) catching a big Lacerta trilineata. Moving like lightning, hitting like an explosion.

I hope you´ll find a partner for her/him, breed them and be lucky to get the young ones calm.
Rainer

Thx Rainer,

to find a partner should be a problem, but I go ahead to find one within the next year. If I do not find an importer, I will import some snakes on my own, so I cross my fingers to breed them.
Maybe this snakes will calm down, if I build up the new cage and feed him some times. If anybody knows a nice lady, just let me know Twisted Evil

cheers Fabian

Fabian,

Thats a great looking snake. How large will it get? If it has a bad attitude, and its big, you are really going to have your hands full. Very Happy

At the moment about 1,2m and Malpolon sp. can raise up to 2m. I ordered a hide box , so there is not often the problem to handle this snake. It is a problem because he doesn´t stay on 2 hooks and if I tail him it is possible but he is very fast and strong with his movement ( stress for both). I don´t want to fix him every time while I am cleaning, so a hide box is a good compromise.

Hello Kelly,

these Malpolon can reach a bit over 7 ft (2,2m.) in length but usually stay much smaller. Normal size is 4-5 ft (1,2-1,5m.), my Tunisian ones never grew bigger than 3 1/2 ft though they were raised in captivity under good conditions and grew quite old. All adults from that population that I´ve ever seen were relatively small, the biggest Malpolon I´ve seen were from Morocco.

Hi Rainer,

So I guess the moral here is NOT to have your hands full at all because that's a significant amount of uncooperative snake. Wink

Hi Fabian,
from wich location is your one? Maby there are some other people that keep or breed them. It will be helpfull to know where was the origin of this one, so that you can get the right partner for it.

The snakes comes from an Egypt export. It is a Malpolon insignitus fuscus after new taxonomic changes.

rgds Fabian

Hello Fabian,

eastern N-Africa clears up a lot for me. I don´t know why I thought this animal was from Morocco (maybe from one of your PMs or the specie´s name) but looking at the photo I always was sure it is from N-E-Africa or even S-E. Europe.
All Moroccan specimens that I´ve seen up to now looked really different concerning their heads.

Hello Kelly,

So I guess the moral here is NOT to have your hands full at all because that's a significant amount of uncooperative snake. - Those I kept (apart from one) were absolutely cooperative. I only had to pick most of them from my shoulders and gently put them back into their terraria when I had to clean,... them.
I never met any snakes that would learn so quickly like this species. When I watched Vipera ammodytes for several days in a row in Croatia, in one occasion I sat in a place close to the morning-basking spot of a Malpolon monsp (or insignitus) fuscus. Normal flight-distance in adults of this species is about 5m. It was the same here, but from the third day on the snake would stay less than 1m (3ft) beside me, watching me but not even moving away when I stood up. Usually flight in this species means: off like lightning, stopping after a few meters, looking at you and if you move towards the snake: off again, if you dont move towards her or do just something else she will watch you and relax. Maybe she "knows" that you have no chance to get her as long as she can see you starting.

This is one of the most interesting species of snakes in my opinion.

I hope Fabian will be able to keep us updated about his specimen and hopefully specimens.

Cheers,
Rainer

Here is one nice shot

The devil arrived - M. insignitus Malpol10

I first only speak from M.insignitus because I was not sure about ssp.

Fabian: Awesome photo as always!
Rainer: Thanks for the info Very Happy

They are really cool looking. You should post some pictures of them.

Very nice Malpolon, Fabian. Congratulations !

We have a lot of M. monspessulanus in Portugal and they are quite a treat !

I have been giving some practical snake handling sessions to the Portuguese (countryside) police - in cooperation with the Portuguese Institute of Conservation of Nature - and it´s always funny to see how they "complain" about the calls they get regarding Malpolons: whenever people call and say "I have a big snake in my car/yard near the chicken/bathroom/whatever..." it´s 90% of the times a Malpolon.

And they usually don´t just go away.. . first they try to keep a safe distance and then puff and whislte really high and stand up like a cobra. They always put an act ! and bite quite a lot as well, eheh

I remember in the last session a policeman telling me after receiving a call from a lady that said she had a snake in her jeep (SUV), they had to call a mecanic to dismantle the engine and other parts of the jeep because the big (2m+) Malpolon got inside it and refused to come out. It moved from the engine to the tubs of the car structure and it was a full day job to persuade it to come out.

As soon as it finally did, the first action the snake took was to bite and start chewing the policeman´s boot. It was easy to catch it afterwards and it was relocated safely.
After that, it took several hours more to put the jeep together again, lol

Amazing animals.

Fabian: A very good shot, clearly presenting the eye and the typical shape of the head.

Kelly: I have only very old (35 years) color-slides of my Tunisian ones. They never were very good and lost quality with age. I´ll dig them out and scan them. Fabian´s specimen is much nicer.

Joao: A good and typical story about Malpolon monsp. (and insignitus) if they get cornered. No chance to escape means immediate attack (better: defense).
You are absolutely right, they are amazing.

Hello,

here´s a photo of one of the Tunisian Malpolon insignitus that I had for many years. The other snake is a Psammophylax rhombeatus.

The devil arrived - M. insignitus Malpol10

these snakes are very common here in Greece.they are voracius feeders and powerfull constrictors and excellent racers.

they prey upon anything that moves and take down easily vipers.from fieled observations here are natural controllers of vipera ammodytes populations like dolichophis caspius.

they can feed properly in captivity among thawed mice and rats while rodents are part of their diet.

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