South American Forest Racer
Dendrophidion dendrophis
-2.15, -77.69
Field Notes
Description:
Also called the "Common Forest Racer," this is a pretty little snake that is dark brown to reddish brown with gray/beige bands the length of its long slender body. There is also a very narrow gray/beige line that goes down the spine the entire length of the snake. There are traces of yellow on the anterior bands of gray. Although they are normally under a meter in length I measured one at 132 cm. While not considered extremely rare, they are seldom seen because of the way their colors blend into the leaf clutter on the jungle floor. The IUCN Red List rates them "Least Concern."
Habitat:
Being considered semi-aquatic to terrestrial snakes, they can be found floating in water, moving through the leaf litter or in the lower branches of bushes and trees, normally up to 2 m in height. This one was found on a little used jungle trail in secondary forest growth in the Amazon rainforest of SE Ecuador. Their range is from Venezuela and Colombia south to Bolivia and east throughout the Brazilian lowlands.
Notes:
These are diurnal snakes, hunting by day for daytime frogs that are also in the leaf litter on the jungle floor or near pools of water. Sometimes ambush hunters, they can pursue prey very rapidly when detecting something edible. When threatened it smears itself with a cloacal discharge that is strong enough to discourage most of its predators.
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