Hi everybody!
This is my first post here, cause i dont keep any hots. I like it more to see great pictures and read about them as well.
In a far, far future there will be some rear-fanged, like Telescopus, but for now i am only keeping colubrids.

A friend of mine asked me what snake she saw last week in Mashatu game reserve, Botswana.
The snake measured 20-30 cm and was crawling on a table at first.

http://s7.directupload.net/file/d/2000/jmd3m3nx_jpg.htm
http://s1.directupload.net/file/d/2000/acnaibds_jpg.htm


I hope someone here can id it?

Regards
Bernd

Hello Bernd,

the picture shows a Prosymna stuhlmanni or East African Shovel-snout, a harmless burrowing colubrid snake. You don´t find them very often, as they are mostly hiding under the surface. Biologically they are very strange in feeding (as far as I know) exclusively on reptile eggs.

Best regards

Frank

Hello Frank!

I think you are right with Prosymna stuhlmanni, i did some google research and the pictures look pretty much like the snake my friend saw.
Thank you very much for your fast answer!

I have also a picture probaly showing a juvenile Dispholidus typus?
http://s3.directupload.net/file/d/2000/ar786w44_jpg.htm

Regards
Bernd

Hi Bernd,

I´m 100% sure with the Prosymna stuhlmanni, I found it myself a couple of weeks ago in Tanzania.
The other picture is no Dispholidus typus, it looks to me like a Psammophis sp., the exact species I´m not sure about.

Best regards

Frank

My friend said one of the guides identified it as a Boomslang, but when she showed the picture to me, the head didnt look like D. typus.
As i said before, i am not a hot keeper, but all pictures of the boomslang i saw before looked very different from that one, including green and black animals.
Maybe the natives call every more aboreal snake "Boomslang"?

Definately a Psammophis sp.

You are probably correct in saying that locals refer to any snake found in a tree as "Boomslang"
Then again, they dont speak Afrikaans in Botswana. Hmmm

Looks like a young Psammophis Mossambicus. They lose most of the head pattern when they get bigger.

Hello!
Today i got my hands on another picture of the snake, perhaps its easier to identify now? http://s2.directupload.net/file/d/2002/kvyrhqmp_jpg.htm

Psammophis mossambicus !

Prosymna stuhlmanni and psammophis m.They are not the same snake at all 2 snakes 2 answers