Magnificent Regional Snakes

I came across this interesting article in “Across The Outback” magazine, published by Natural Resources Arid Lands and I believe it deserves wider dissemination so I’ll share it with you….

Natural Resources SA Arid Lands staff often encourage residents and visitors to the region to be their eyes and ears and to send in their photos of interesting plants and animals. Native or introduced, your sighting may be a plant or animal not previously recorded in our region or one outside its known range. Here Across The Outback shares some of the snake sightings people have been reporting over the last few months.

Flinders Ranges National Park

During recent Western Quoll (Idnya) surveying in the Flinders Ranges National Park, volunteers David Peacock and Kelly Rayner were undertaking telemetry near Wangarra Lookout and were alerted to the excited calls of the Grey Shrike Thrush. When Kelly stepped off the path a couple of metres to investigate, she was amazed to see a Carpet Python (Morelia spilota) more than two metres in length.

Wintinna Station

The old, 1972 Mack truck that left Wintinna Station on the back of semi-trailer had a stowaway onboard that took a free ride to Adelaide, a snake that measured more than one and a half metres in length!

The stowaway still remains a bit of a mystery to Digby Giles (Wintinna) who had no knowledge it was actually on board when it left the property and has never seen that type of snake in the area before.

“I heard it might have been a Carpet Python and that it is outside the known range for this type of snake, but we can’t be 100% certain it was on board when it left the property.” Digby said.

It was a bit of a surprise when the truck was being unloaded in Adelaide and it was discovered under the spare tyre. A snake catcher was called and the travelling snake has been relocated to a more suitable home.

Near Coober Pedy

Jan Becker, a German exchange student, came across an Inland Taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) after visiting the Dog Fence north east of Coober Pedy during his university holidays.

Travelling with friends between Adelaide and Alice Springs, Jan shared his photograph with the online community for identification and was surprised when the message he received back was “[You are] very lucky to see a wild one of these. Lots of hepers (herpetologists) go out looking for them and don’t have any luck at all.”

Jan’s photograph and GPS co-ordinates have resulted in the record being lodged in the South Australian Biological Survey Database. Well done Jan!

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