Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus)

My new addition that i named Genghis Khan Very Happy

Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus) 773765_459026867489831_644771304_o

Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus) 410832_459025737489944_1600525985_o

Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus) 740044_459025847489933_71464572_o

Really a nice one ... Just send me a few

Interesting... Thank you for posting this, Mr. Palaganas. Could you please tell us a little more about the specimen? (Such as: How did you acquire this snake? Is it wild caught or captive bred? Do you know if it's male or female? How long is it in total length? Could you show us how you have the snake's cage set up?). Just wondering... Sincerely, Jon Davidson .

a poorly studied endemic kukri snake with a very limited distribution in our country. it's a wild-caught specimen found in between the shoreline and the lush shrubbery further inland. it cannot open it's mouth widely that's why 95% of its diet consists of drinking raw eggs or swallowing small eggs whole then the remaining diet is made-up of either lizards or small toads. the tail is sharpened to a point and is used to break open eggs or in defense (which i learned the hard way lol)

sexual dimorphism in terms of body size, coloration or vent to tip of tail length is virtually impossible to tell. i haven't probed it yet.

the length of the one above is 19 inches. local accounts from the people say they reach a maximum length of 31 inches but the girth of the it's body is interesting. the local people who saw it said that even though it is short, it can be 2.5 inches wide with a 7-inch body circumference. It is quite a docile specimen unlike most snakes i've dealt with.

interesting very interesting, thanks for the information, and nice specimen too
keep updating on its husbandry requirements
regards

thanks will do. i hope i can get a couple more so i can start a breeding pair. they kinda eat often though since they 'drink' the egg contents instead of eating the egg with the shell whole.

Hello Nej,

I keep some of the Genus Oligodon here, you are absolutly right that the main diet are reptile eggs. They can open there mouth wide, be shure! I was bitten by such some times, and it was very painfull and bloody! The open there mouth wide, when they eat here mices. WC speciemens acceped very often only eggs as food, but you turn them to mice too. (I prefere).
Put a mice into the egg when you offered thed egg to the snake, mostly they feed the egg and the mices. After a time they will feed also only the mices. I use this method because the fecals are very liquid when they feed on eggs. O. ancorus is not a smal snake, so they can feed rodents very easy. I use this by several species. It works and make things much easyer.

But one point you wrote is very intressting!

,,the tail is sharpened to a point and is used to break open eggs´´

I´ve never seen that a ,,Kukri´´ or anny other snake opend eggs with there tail. For me it is only a tale. Like milk drinking snakes...LOL. Did you personaly observe this behaviour? Anny pictures of this? I will be very intressting. It will be unique in the wolrd of snakes.

The ,,Kukri´´snakes has there name by two large, raser sharp thooth in uper jaw. The shape of this thooth are like a ,,Kukri Knife´´ thats there entymology for the name Kukri.
And this thooth are used to open the eggs, like a saw.

But a very nice nice species do you have there. Did you only keep this single one?

regards

Peter

thank goodness this sp is a docile one. doesn't even nudge if you touch it but will stick his tail to your hand if you hold it too tight.

i've seen it use the tail but i haven't recorded it yet. i was too excited to have the specimen lol

i think it is too small to feed on mice yet but it did eat a fat gecko last night.

what i love about it is it can eat very often Very Happy

Of Possible Interest... www.pnas.org/content/108/18/7455.full.pdf+html . Sincerely, Jon Davidson .

Hello Mr. Davidson,

unfortunly I can´t open this file. Please send me the name of this ,,Article?´´ mabye I can go to the page and search for it. My Adobe Reader X and also the Adobe Acrobat can´t open this.

regards,

Peter

Peter, i can open it without problems using Adobe Acrobat. Are you working with the newest updates?
regards
Peter

Hmmm... ? The PDF just opened now for me with no problem... Nonetheless, the title of this essay is: 'Territorial behavior in Taiwanese kukrisnakes(Oligodon formosanus)' by Wen-San Huang, Harry W. Greene, Tien-Jye Chang and Richard Shine. 2011. Hopefully a title search on the home page of: www.pnas.org will provide the link, and if not, please contact me and I'll try to get a copy to you. The paper descibes an insular population of female Oligodon formosanus actively defending a food source( the nest and eggs of Sea Turtles). Sincerely, Jon Davidson .

just read it. the taiwanese kukri is aggressive compared to this species. when young, O. formosanus does have the similar red mid-body coloration but it fades away as it matures. it's banded markings are not as pronounced as in O. ancorus. The former also shows semi-social feeding habits whereas O. ancorus is a very solitary animal that likes hiding in sun-laden areas as it appreciates warmth.

Thanks Peter & Mr. Davidson,

@ Peter - yes I have! Mabye a Problem with a Setting in A. Reader?

@ Mr. Davidson - thanks for the Titel, I have this article, this defence behaviour inKukri snakes I know.

@peter van issem: can i see the oligodon spp u keep?

Hi Nej,

I will look for some pic´s. But I don´t have them from all species I keep. But the best looking for sure. I will post them later, now I have to work a little bit.

Ok,
here we are.

This is Oligodon cf. cinereus. A species from northern Vietnam. Lives also in other countrys that bordered Vietnam. Depeicted is a male. Females are more red than the males.

Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus) O_cf_c10

Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus) O_cf_c10

this Oligodon purpurascens is from an Malysian Island on the east coast in the north part. This shows the juvenile coloratin. When they grow up, the contrast will fade a little bit.

Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus) O_purp10

Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus) O_purp10

this one shows a female of the red form from O. purpurascens, it´s found on a island in the south east of Malaysia, but also on the mailnland in Malysia and Singapur. On the island, only this coloration is distributed, and an other exclusivley red Species, without pattern.

Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus) O_purp11

Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus) O_purp11

I have to look, if I can find a pic from a juv. one of the last species form. This are more colorfull than the adults!

i think we also have the 2nd sp here. not familiar with the 3rd one though. nice kukris btw Very Happy

Hi Nej,
I´m not sure, but the Philippines have there own herpetofauna, a lot of species are very special and endemic there. Not only Genus level but on species or mabye on subspecies level.
Unfortunly [i] have not the best paperwork over this herpetofauna, I missed the most of them. Specialy the ,,Tayler´´ Snakes of the Philippine Islands ! A lot of stuff we can download, but not all.

Thats the reason I think, you will not have the purpurascens on the Philippines, mabye an other species, thats look similar to them! BTW. some other species looks nearly identical on the first view. fasciolatus, cyclurus, joynsoni p.e. but this not distributed on the Philippines too. and I´m sure a lot of others too.

From the Philippines I know only: Oligodon ancorus (Luzon & Mindoro islands); O. maculatus (Mindanao); O. mayerinkii (Bongao, Jolo, Papahang, Sibutu, Tawi-Tawi); O. modestus (Luzon, Mindanao, Negros, Tablas, Panay); mabye but not sure O. octolineatus (I´m not sure if this is the same species like on mainland Malaysia and Indonesia´s Islands..); O. perkinsi (Culion Islands); a ssp. is O.vertebralis notospilus from (Calamian isl. , Palawan, Busuanga, Balabac, Mindanao) but I will quote for a good species.

This can give you an overview over the species you have there. But like in many other cases - there are surly more than this... time will tell us...

i knew we had a lot it's just a matter of finding and identifying them properly. apparently we hve a kukri snake here that resembles one of our local coral snake species that unfortunately bit someone and the victim died.

Mimicry of Coral snakes in Case of Oligodon spec. is wide distributed. Not all Oligodon shows this. But look at C. intestinalis and O. octolineatus and O. trillineatus and a lot of others. Also the behaviuor with lifting up the tail, shares both!
You are absolutly right about the exact identifiying of the differend species, this is the reason you can find some diff. species here in europe under wrong ID´s, and the people has problem s to ID them too. Very important, not only for this, are to know exactly where there has there origin. Snakes with no aditional Datas some times very hard to ID!
On the other hand Oligodon is very variabale not only in case of the genus, in case of species also! If you have some more pictures of Oligodon, feel free to show them Laughing

yeah i sure will. so far i think we have 3 oligodon sp that's up in the trade. the rest are just to elusive to be captured hehe. thanks man!

@peter: did your oligodons ever regurgitated raw eggs after sucking them in? mine seems to have bulimic tendencies

Not when they have enought time After the Meal to rest and no Stress! When they has Feed , I leave them alone for some days.

I never observed a regurgitation of egg at my O. lacroixi and I don't feed them mice. I heard once that feeding them mice can shorten their life significantly, but I don't know if this is true.

Kind Regards, Manuel Ebert

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