COPPERHEAD RACER or RADIATED RAT SNAKE
(Coelognathus radiatus) Heinrich Boie, 1827

The Radiated Rat Snake, Copperhead racer, Copperhead Rat Snake, or Copperheaded Trinket Snake (Coelognathus radiatus) is a nonvenomous species of colubrid snake.
(In Thai: งูทางมะพร้าว, ngu taang mapao)
(German: Strahlennatter)

The bold black markings on the head of this large snake immediately identify it as Coelognathus radiatus. The Radiated Rat Snake grows up to 60 inches in length but can reach almost 70 inches. They are large polyphyletic, meaning that they are nonvenomous snakes.

The good thing is that these snakes are not poisonous to humans. Rat snakes kill their prey by constriction. Since humans are not part of their natural diet, there is no reason to fear getting attacked.

An adult only needs to eat once every two weeks, or it can get fat.

This snake lives in many lowland and hill habitats, including forests and agricultural areas. It is exclusively "diurnal" (active in the daytime) and mainly terrestrial in habits, but sometimes "arboreal" (living in trees). Its diet comprises rodents and other small vertebrates.

This snake can exhibit "thanatosis" (pretending to be dead) when under extreme stress from an external threat. It does this by rolling upside down and relaxing most of its muscles.

Its body is relatively slender, greyishbrown in color, with four dark stripes running along its body; the lower two stripes are narrower and sometimes intermittent. The coppercolored head has three radiating stripes extending below and behind the eye and a dark band across the nape. The "ventrum" (underside of abdomen) and underside of the head are pale.

This snake lives in parts of South Asia (India, Nepal, Bangladesh), southern China,
Southern Myanmar, southern Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Brunei, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Borneo, and Indonesia. In Singapore, this species is listed as 'indeterminate,' with no recent records of existence.





Other Rat Snake Link for study:

https://www.reptilecentre.com/infora...

https://www.thainationalparks.com/spe...

https://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/sna...


RAT SNAKE VIDEOS

Radiated Rat Snake: Zilla Beyond the Glass Episode 1
   • Radiated Rat Snake: Zilla Beyond the ...  


© Donovan M. Kundiger Fresh Breeze Photography
May 2, 2022
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Video Narration:

The Snake and the Curious Cat

When we moved to this house, we had a problem with mice.

However, our cat did a good job of keeping the population in check.

But this action was way back in 2015.

These days, our old cat is in retirement.

Regardless, we still don't have a mouse problem.

I thought the other cats in the neighborhood had taken up the slack.

But we discovered they have help, like this copperhead racer, also called a rat snake, that showed up at our house back in 2020.

Not long ago, my wife saw a neighbor's cat stalking something across the street.

I grabbed my video camera and started shooting video from our porch, but they were too far away for me to recognize what the cat was after when looking through my camera's small viewfinder.

The cat moved its position for a better look.

For a moment, the cat blocked the view of the intruder. But now, if you are watching with a large enough screen, you can recognize it is a snake.

Had this been a poisonous snake, Curiosity killed the cat could have certainly applied to this close encounter.

At this close range, the snake could easily have given the cat a vicious bite.

Whatever it was, the cat decided to leave well enough alone.

I went across the street and got up close; it was another rat snake. The cat has micecatching competition.

Posed in a striking position, it cautiously stared at my video camera's big eye, flattening its neck in a defensive posture.

Make a comment on whether you'd like the help of a ratcatching snake around your house.

Deciding it was better to escape than fight, it suddenly turned tail and shot off through the grass.

I went after it, but it was long gone.

Although rat snakes aren't poisonous, I thought how lucky this cat was that the rat snake didn't strike. It certainly could have.

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