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Rat snakes
Scientific Name: Ptyas muscosus
Nick Name: Dhaman or Oriental Ratsnake
Size:
Type: Non Venomous Snake
Appearance: The coloration of this snake varies drastically and it is one of the most common snakes to be encountered in the city life. The rat snakes which live in the planes are colored between yellow to black while those which live in hilly regions are colored other than this. They may have green, olive or brown coloration as well. It has some striped on the under side. In the rat snakes on North India, these stripes are prominent. Rat snakes also have black lines running under their lower lip. They are often mistaken for the cobras, but these lines on their lower jaw helps to identify it easily. Another way of differentiating it from the cobras is that they are quite longer than the cobras and posses large eyes and a pointed head rather than a rounded one as found in the cobras. When you're comparing the cobra with a rat snake, you should notice the head, neck and the head carefully. Nature: They are rat eating machines. Rats are more in the places where humans live, so it is not rare to notice these snakes around human areas. This snake is most active during the day. It is very adaptive in nature. They are known to be aggressive, they will bite when caught. They pretend to be the cobras but are truly non venomous. They can deliver good bites though! so they are to be handled carefully. They can hiss like a king cobra to threaten.
Distribution: Found all over India up to an elevation of about 4000 mts. Abundant in Maharashtra (Pune) district, Nasrapur, Karnataka (Castle Rock), Andaman, Nicobar etc
Apart from India it is also found in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, China (Zhejiang, Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Tibet, Hong Kong), India Andamans, Sri Lanka, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java), Iran, Laos, West Malaysia, Nepal, Myanmar Pakistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, (former) U.S.S.R., Vietnam
Habitat: It is capable of adapting to almost any environment. They prefer rat holes, termite mounds and paddy fields.
Feeds on: They are prodigal rat-eaters. They feed on rodents, small mammals, birds, and eggs. They rarely eat small snakes. Even when they are really young, they start hunting rats.
Reproduction: The female snake lays around 8 - 16 eggs between March to July. They even lay eggs in winter. The young ones hatch out in 60 days.
Status: For a long time these snakes were hunted along with the cobras for their skin. Such large scale hunting has lead to localized extinction in many places where once they were abundant. The export of this snake's skin has been completely banned in India but still the illegal hunting of these snakes for their skin continues . . .
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