Beauty rat snake
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| Beauty Rat Snake | ||||||||||||||
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 Taiwanese Beauty Snake (Elaphe taeniura)
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| Elaphe taeniura (Cope, 1861) |
Beauty Rat Snakes are long, slender, semi-arboreal snakes that are native to Asia. Their average length is about 5-7 feet, with an unofficial record of slightly under 10 ft. In captivity some calm down to be nice pets, but others have been known to be quite temperamental even many years after capture.
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[edit] Coloration
Ground color of yellowish-brown to olive. The tops of the head and neck are unicolor. The markings on the back almost always consist of two pairs of black rounded spots, which join together. From each eye there is a dark stripe, which extends to the corners of the mouth. The upper labials are yellowish-white. In addition, this subspecies has a much wider head and a longer tail.(1)
[edit] Breeding
The temperature for hibernation is around 18-20*C. Mating usually results about a month after hibernation period. Hatchlings are about 30-45 cm in length and shed after about 14 days. Following shedding, pinkie mice should be fed immediately. They grow quickly and attain a length of 135 cm after only 14 months. They are capable of reproduction after only 18 months.(1)
[edit] Subspecies
Sub-species of this group include the:
- Chinese Beauty Rat snake (Elaphe taeniura taeniura) - Native to China.
- Cave Dwelling Rat snake (Elaphe taeniura ridleyi) - This snake is native to Thailand and peninsular Malaysia, and as the name implies, lives deep within caves. Its diet consists mainly of bats. They have a yellow to beige background color that darkens to a grey-black towards the tail. A white to cream mid-dorsal stripe starts about half of the way down the body and continues to the tip of tail. Both sides of the head are marked just behind the eye with a black stripe surrounded by blue.
- Mocquard's Beauty Snake (Elaphe taeniura mocquardi) - Native to southeastern China and northern Vietnam, as well as the island of Hainan.
- Taiwan Beauty Rat Snake (Elaphe taeniura friesi) - Native to Taiwan.
- Elaphe taeniura grabowskyi - Native to Sumatra and the provinces of East Malaysia and Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.
- Elaphe taeniura schmackeri - Native to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan.
- Elaphe taeniura yunnanensis - Native to China, India, Laos, Myanmar, eastern Thailand and Vietnam.
- Elaphe taeniura ssp - Native to Burma, Thailand and Vietnam.
