Order: Squamata

Family: Boidae

 

Size: up to 99 cm in length.

 

Key Features: It can be easily identified by its: Small head, Thick & robust body, Dorsally marked with irregular patches and Very rough looking thick tail.  Apart from these, smaller Irregular shaped and discontinuous patches also present on side. Ground color light brown, white or yellow which is always lighter than color of patches.

 

Breeding: Viviparous. Female directly gives birth to 5-8 young during post summer and starting monsoon months.

 

Diet: Feed mostly on rodents, birds and other snakes; juveniles feeds on insects and lizards also. 

 

Habitat:  includes agricultural lands, gardens, unused lands having sandy soil and rat holes. hides in cracks, mounds, rat holes, brick piles, rock piles etc.

 

Habits: Locomotion very slow and lethargic. Behaviour usually non-offensive and try to escape first. Makes a coil to hide head in defence. In aggressive mood it flattens whole body and throw it into and open coil with head ready to strike. Unlike its normal behaviour, it strikes in surprising way and can give painful bite if successfully get any body part of enemy.

 

Conservation Status: Not Evaluated on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Boulenger GA. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Mueum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families Boidæ, London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 448 pp.

 

Gongylophis conicus. In IndianSnakes.Org. Retrieved on July 11, 2014 from: http://www.indiansnakes.org/content/common-sand-boa

 

Photo Courtesy

Shymal, Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons