Introduced population of Russian ratsnake (Elaphe schrenckii

[Bobby Bok]

Last weekend I made a visit to a place I've been wanting to visit for quite some time now. In the north of the Province of Drenthe there is an introduced population of Russian ratsnake (Elaphe schrenckii) that seems to thrive and even expands its range. The introduction has been founded in the big garden of a local biologist who have had people dumping their ex-pets on his property, most of the species introduced on his land died because of the climate or the unsuitable habitat but the ratsnakes feel themselves quite at home at the big piles of dead vegetation and amongst the big piles of stones. Some very big specimens have been found (above 2 meters) and also juveniles.

The weather was very good for snakes, clouded with every now and then some sun. When I and three friends of mine arrived at the spot where the introduction was founded it lasted only 5 minutes before I found the first animal, a big male with beautiful brown/black colouration and yellow lips with black bars.



They are very well camouflaged amongst the vegetation and the leaf litter.


A pale male.




A big female measuring 1,80 meters.


Not happy to see us!


A juvenile


Habitat


At the end of the day we had found 9 individuals surprisingly easy, the other snake species that occurs here is the grasssnake (Natrix natrix) of which we found two individuals. Time will tell if the ratsnakes pose a threat to the local fauna in a serious way. They live happily together with the grass snakes, mostly hunting for different prayitems but happily sharing basking spots and places where they lay their eggs. Maybe in the future this will change but I think this needs to be studied more to say something about.

And at night we found a small, adult male spadefoot toad (Pelobates fuscus), very rare in the Netherlands so we were pleased to find one.

[Jürgen Gebhart]

I think the people in the Nederlands smoke too much crazy making plants!!
The pale male looks like a hyprid between schrenckii and anomala.

congrats on the Spadefoot!!!

[GertJan Verspui]

Great Bobby, I saw you pics already on ravon, I've been wanting to go there for some time but never did so far.
Love the Pelobates

[Daniel Bohle]

Wow, what a sick place

[Paul Lambourne]

Bobby,

Absolutely pant wetting snake shots... stunning colouration, how long has the population been in the location ? Great spadefoot find

Kind regards

Paul

[Wouter Beukema]

Bobby, as I said before, really interesting! Despite the fact that such a exogenous population can never be a good thing, I do admit I'm quite fascinated by it... Lets hope that RAVON puts a student on it soon!

[Bobby Bok]

Thanks guys!

The owner of the land tolled me that lately he comes across more and more of these pale individuals that seem to be better camouflaged, maybe the result of predation/natural selection. The snakes are around for some time now, they were first spotted in the mid '90's so they are present in the area for some 16 years now. But like Wouter I hope they study this some more to see what the impact on the local fauna would be. I'm no supporter of the introduction of exotic species but I (like Wouter ) must admit I'm fascinated by them, it's always interesting to see how animals will survive in an alien environment such as the treefrogs in the dunes, midwife toads in the center of of Amsterdam, wall lizards on trainstations, Algerian whipsnakes on Malta etc.

[Mario Schweiger]

..................it's always interesting to see how animals will survive in an alien environment such as the treefrogs in the dunes, midwife toads in the center of of Amsterdam, wall lizards on trainstations, Algerian whipsnakes on Malta etc.

......................red ear sliders across the planet

[Vlad Cioflec]

Freakin` amazing!

Thanks for the post Bobby,
Vlad

[Guillaume Gomard]

Hi Bobby,

Interesting report and very nice pictures of those seldom seen snakes.