Checkered keelback

Scientific Name: Xenochrophis piscator

Nick name: Water Snake

Size: maximum of 4-5 feet in length.

• Adult: 60 cm
• When Born:  12.5 cm
• Maximum: 1.75 m (Female)

Type: Non Venomous Snake

Appearance: It can be identified by the checkered pattern on its back and the two 'kajal'-like lines near its eye. This is generally a greenish colored snake. It is quite big snake which has a real gloss.

Nature:  It is a water-loving snake.  It is an active and often aggressive snake.

Habitat: Lakes, Ponds, Wells, Rivers and even in water filled paddy or any other agricultural fields.

Distribution: This snake found all over India up to an elevation of about 3000 mts.

Feeds on: Small snakes, frods, water insects, fish and some times even water birds and their eggs.

Reproduction: The female snake lays around 20 - 40 eggs in rat holes, crevices of rocks, wells or in mounds. The young ones hatch out in about 60 - 70 days. Till then the female snake incubates and protects it. They are known to lay eggs between December and February. But in North India, it is around the month of March.

Status: There is a great demand for the skin of this snake. Though it is common in many regions, the over destruction of the snakes has lead to localized extinctions in many regions.

Side Line:

• Keelbacks are so called because they have a keel (as in a boat) along the longitudinal axis of dorsal scales.

• One related species of this snake in Australia can even gulp the cane frogs. Cain frogs were introduced in Australia as they wanted it to eat away an accidentally introduced species of insect. Cane frogs are known to be poisonous but the keelback happens to be the only snake that is immune to it.