Angolan Garter Snake

DESCRIPTION:

Angolan Garter Snake adults average between 30 and 50cm – rarely growing longer. Juveniles are black with 8 to 17 white or yellowish narrow bands (rings) encircling the body and 2 to 3 of these bands on the tail. Young snakes usually have a dark bar on top of the head extending from the neck towards the snout. Belly is greyish. As the snake ages the narrow bands darken from the center leaving pairs of thin white rings which may eventually fade as well, leaving a uniform grey or grey-brown snake.

HABITS & HABITAT:

This snake is found in dry and moist savanna as well as forest from the dry Sudan-Sahel climatic zone to the humid Guinean tropics. This nocturnal, terrestrial species is partly fossorial, and shelters within crevices or beneath vegetation during the day, and is most active following rain. Generally placid but may bite if handled.

DISTRIBUTION:

Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast (RÖDEL et al. 1999), Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Gambia, Mozambique, N Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Swaziland, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea (Conakry), Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, S Sudan (Jumhūriyyat), Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Togo, W/C/S Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Congo (Brazzaville), Zambia, Zimbabwe.

VENOM:

Unknown, but unlikely to cause significant envenoming, most unlikely to be dangerous.

SYMPTOMS:

Unknown

ANTIVENOM:

Not effective

SIMILAR SPECIES:

Western Garter Snake (Elapsoidea trapei) – Found in Senegal and southern Mauritania, probably extreme western Mali and northern Guinea.