Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this page were taken by Paul Smith, Silvia Centrón, Gijs Linderman, Alberto Esquivel and Hugo del Castillo and are used with permission.
TOAD-EATING SNAKE Waglerophis merremi
As his name suggests the diet of this snake consists mainly of amphibians. Having no venom of his own his main defence is to mimic the deadly Bothrops vipers - don´t take any chances with what you think is a Toad-eating Snake unless you are 100% sure of the identification - you might live (or die!) to regret it if you are wrong and it is a Bothrops! If his imitation doesn´t work his next defence is to flatten the whole body and hiss loudly - this threat display is usually enough to dissuade wouldbe predators. This is an extremely variable species.
Click on the images to enlarge them.
FIGURE 1 - Adult, Estero Kuruñai, Departamento Misiones (Silvia Centrón February 2007).
FIGURE 2 - Same individual head detail (Hugo del Castillo February 2007).
FIGURE 3 - Adult, Estancia Kanguery, PN San Rafael (Alberto Esquivel September 2006).
FIGURE 4 - Same individual dorsal (Alberto Esquivel September 2006).
FIGURE 5 - Adult dorsal, location unknown (Gijs Lindeman undated).
FIGURE 6 - Adult, Laguna Bombacha, Departamento Presidente Hayes (Paul Smith October 2008).
FIGURE 7 - Same individual head detail (Paul Smith October 2008).
FIGURE 8 - Same individual dorsal (Paul Smith October 2008).
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