S'N'A Intermediate Series: Episode 31 - Moellendorff's Rat Snake (Elaphe Moelllendorfii)
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- Опубліковано 13 бер 2021
- S’N’A Intermediate Series
Episode: 31
Mollendorff’s Rat Snake, Moellendorff’s Trinket Snake, Flower Snake or Hundred Flower Snake
(Elaphe Moellendorfii)
Ok so this is exciting. Very exciting, this represents the pinnacle of Rat Snakes for many keepers me included. Some older keepers may be wondering why this is in the intermediate series, and that’s a fair question. Many old school keeper experiences with this species are filled with disaster. Moellendorff’s have a troubled reputation for being incredibly weak and sensitive snake bound to die. This information solely deals with wild caught imported specimens. They were a regular feature on importers stock lists for very modest prices (£50-100). Because of the rarity in captivity keepers would invariably be tempted to give them a go.
This rarely ended well.
Heavy parasitic burden and chronic dehydration saw condition fall of these snakes with speed. Coupled with this, Moellendorff’s Rat Snakes are temperature sensitive too. Being too keen with temperatures would invariably expedite the loss of condition.
Keepers of the wild caught specimens had to walk a knife edge deciding when to undertake acclimatisation techniques such as worming. To act too soon would cause the snake to crash and suffer near total immune failure. Through experience with many wild caught specimens we now know that hydration is key. Hydration is not just water, it is the replacement of salts, electrolytes and amino acids lost through stress. Primary concerns with imported species is to rehydrate them as soon as humanly possible. This trumps feeding, handling or anything else. Without hydration the animal would surely perish.
Moellendorff’s Rat Snake’s ecology is that of a cave dwelling rat Snake that is accustomed to lower temperatures than the surface temperatures that the local area experiences. An arbitrary upper temperature limit of 26°c is accepted in captivity with the opportunity to move away to room temperatures as low as 18°c. With these parameters in place these snakes have similar captive requirements to the Bamboo Rat Snakes (genus Oreocryptophis) and Mandarin Rat Snakes (genus Euprepiophis) even if on a much grander scale.
Moellendorff’s Rat Snakes were first decribed by Boettger in 1886 and was named in honour of Otto Franz Von Moellendorff.
Initially is was described at Cynophis moellendorffi. This species has been through a number of taxonomic reviews hopping through several genera including Coluber, Elaphe, Amblycephalus and Orthriophis.
Moellendorff’s Rat Snake was placed in the genus Orthriophis with the stripe tailed Rat Snakes (Orthriophis taeniurus). Certainly build and tail length wise there are likenesses for such where it jars lightly is that Moellendorff’s Rat Snake is saddled from top to bottom . The taeniurus species starts patternless, then becomes saddled and then forming a strong bold stripe through the tail.
In 2017 Chen synonymised Orthriophis with Elaphe and that is where they currently reside. Although as we all know from watching these videos I produce it is highly unlikely they will stay there. Elaphe are also known as the Northern Rat Snakes and include the Japanese, Russian and Amur Rat Snakes commonly seen in the hobby amongst others.
Moellendorff’s Rat Snake occurs in the South China Plains in the interesting Karst region. The term Karst isn’t something I was familiar with. Karst regions are other worldly looking rock formations created from limestone being eroded by rainfall and running water. There are various karst regions throughout the world. This interaction between precipitation and eroding stone creates cave networks and gaping fissures which seem to be a favourite haunt of the species. They occur in Southern Guangdong, Southern Guangxi, Southern Yunnan and North Eastern Vietnam. Given their lower temperatures one could be forgiven for thing they may be a montane species like the Oreocryptophis and Euprepiophis but Mell stated their elevation ceiling was only 500m and dropped to only 50m above sea level. The type locality of the species is given as Nanning in Guangxi province.
Thumbnail courtesy of Matthew Most @ Sarpamitra
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If I was still in snake 'collector' mode rather than keeper then this would be high on my list. I've never seen one live, I imagine they are even more stunning in person.
What a beautiful looking snake. Great informative video as always 👍
Thanks for another excellent video. Beautiful snake, very interesting.
From a visual standpoint, this might be my favorite non American rat snake. The beauty of this snake is absolutely stunning. Continued success with that one. Cheers Bro !
What a beautiful, active snake! I love the entire rat snake group, and I really appreciate you introducing me to ones that I hadn't been as familiar with before. The colors on this Moellendorff’s Rat Snake are incredible! I'm definitely adding them to my list of snakes to consider.
please keep the vids coming! I've been keeping reptiles for more than two decades now and really enjoy the information you provide so I can learn more about all the species.
What an incredibly interesting and absolutely stunning snake!! I really like this series your doing. I’ve sat down and binge watched a whole bunch of them lol. Particularly enjoyed the one where you tackled the North American rat snakes. Would love to see a video dedicated to the zamenis genus as there’s not much content about them on UA-cam.
Excellent video, i just picked up a wc female moellendorffi 2 weeks ago, first thing i did was make sure she had clean water to drink, couldn't find any pedialyte around me but she seems to be decently hydrated. A big 4 footer, i offered her a f/t hopper mouse left in with her overnight and she surprisingly ate it by the morning!
Great info as always. Cheers
Hope to get a pair here soon! Beautiful! Great info thank you!
excellent vid mate
I have waited for years to get some moellendorffi....finally have 2.2 cbb coming soon...Hard as hell here in the U.S. to find normals...Zerkle does normals and my guy...everyone else like Matt Most do hypo and aberrant pattern both of which I think look like crap and pricing is insane...currently one aberrant for sale here in the U.S. that I know of..2020 male is 1850 dollars...
Love the content! I got a few rat snakes myself. Underrated
Cracking videos, your recent colubrid splerge of videos is really starting to look bad for my bank the mandarin sp for example was mind blowing
SUPER DUPER cool snakes
Thats awesome i want one
Lol love it but that pause at te start made me laugg
Do you produce this beautys? So captive bred ones do very well? I would consider one as my second, and last snake then. I got a cal king (my fav species), and want a second snake. I don't know which one to choose. It's hard.. Great vid!
I had two when I was 24, so 40 years ago and both unfortunately died; after that it was determined that both had their gallbladders removed before shipping....................................
love the content they have one of these at the san diego zoo
Great video but at the end of the video should have zoomed in on all the pics. Can’t see anything.
ps Nolendorffi is misspelled........:-) Or is it Moelendorffii? I am finding different spellings.
Love the video brother and I will love to Get one how can I go about that
Good video Chas. Can we expect a scrub python video soon?
Expect lots if blood if i do. Lol
Do you have a Instagram because I do not have a Facebook