Olive Grass Snake
Name
Olive Grass Snake, Olive Whip Snake [Psammophis mossambicus]
Class
Reptilia
Order
Squamata
Family
Colubridae
Length_F
1 285 mm
Length_M
1 451 mm
Description
The Olive Grass Snake is a large, robust snake with a non-flattened snout and a long tail. The back is olive-brown (paler towards the tail), sometimes with black-edged scales, forming thin black lines or with scattered black flecks on the forebody. The belly is white-yellow.
Distribution
The Olive Grass Snake occurs in some parts of Mpumalanga and northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and other countries in Southern Africa.
Breeding
The female lays 10 - 30 eggs in dead leaves, etc., in midsummer. They hatch in about 65 days.
Venom
Its venom may cause nausea and pain.
Diet
It occasionally eats other snakes, lizards, frogs and even young black mambas.
Field Notes
Personal observations have included watching the Olive Grass Snake, on two occasions, swallow an Angola green snake [Philothamnus angolensis].
