Brown Vine Snake

09 Nov 2024 15:12:57 pm

Tags : Brown Vine Snake

Topic: Biodiversity

Why in the news?

Rare brown vine snake spotted in Dudhwa National Park.
It emerged to be a species never documented in the wildlife history of Dudhwa or even the state of UP.

Source: Hindustan Times

About Brown Vine Snake:

It is a species of colubrid snake, which is endemic to the Americas.
It is found from within the Atascosa, Patagonia, and Pajarito mountains of southern Arizona in the United States, through Mexico, to northern South America and Trinidad and Tobago.
It is usually encountered in trees or shrubs on open, steep, and grassy slopes, but is also associated with wooded canyons, especially those with abundant vegetation.
It is an extremely slender snake that reaches up to 1.9 m. in total length (including a long tail). Its color may vary from gray to brown with a yellow underside.
Its body is laterally compressed.
The snout is prominent, its length more than two times the diameter of the eye.
In Arizona, it is also called \"pike-headed tree snake\". In Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, it is known as a \"horse whip\" or \"vine snake\".
It is mostly arboreal and diurnal.
It is quite often mistaken for a vine due to similarity in appearance.
When threatened, it sometimes releases foul smelling secretions from its vent.
It feeds mainly on lizards (mostly anoles), but also eats frogs, small rodents and birds.
It is a mildly venomous rear-fanged snake, but it is not considered dangerous to humans.
It is oviparous. Clutch sizes of 3-6 have been published.

Dudhwa National Park:

It is located in the Terai belt of marshy grasslands in northern Uttar Pradesh, India.
It was established in 1958 as a wildlife sanctuary for swamp deer. It was designated as a national park in 1977.
Dudhwa National Park together with Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary comprise the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in the Kheri and Lakhimpur districts.
It has an extreme humid subtropical dry winters (CWa) type of climate.
Its area falls within the Upper Gangetic plains and is a vast alluvial plain ranging in altitude from 150 m. in the farthest southeast to 182 m. in the extreme north.
Fauna:
- Its major attractions are the tigers and swamp deer.
- Hispid hare, once extinct, was rediscovered here in 1984.
- In 1984, Indian rhinoceros was reintroduced here from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.
- The other animals to be seen here include sambar deer, barking deer, spotted deer, hog deer, sloth bear, honey badger, jackal, viverridae, jungle cat, fishing cat and leopard cat.
- Around half of the world\'s barasinghas are found here.
- The white-rumped vulture and red-headed vulture, both Critically Endangered vulture species, are found here.