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Indian Black Earth Snake (Melanophidium wynaudense), family Uropletidae, endemic to the Western Ghats of Southern India

photos: Gowdagirishc & Vedansh Pandey

#earth snake #melanophidium #uropeltidae #snake #reptile #herpetology #animals #nature #india

Shield-tail Snake Hunting Earthworm.

This was the third time that I witnessed a Shield-tail Snake Hunting Earthworm.

First time I saw it at Kaas, Second time I saw it in the outskirts of Satara city, and this is the Third time that I saw this at Raireshwar.

I have come across Shield-tail Snakes several times, but the species may have been different ones. Me after watching shield-tail snake hunting earthworm so many times, it appears, that the earthworm is their common prey, and this must be a common scene.

During this third encounter, while the snake in the video can be seen hunting earthworm, the snake later abandoned its hunt. The snake was observed leaving the earthworm and the scene. But, after snake vanished in nearby grass, and when I left the site, it remains unknown whether snake again pursued the same earthworm it had attacked.

Also, the earthworm appeared to have a tear on its body at one end. Whether the fight with snake somehow must have caused it, or it was caused by some other reason couldn’t be understood. This was happening on a trail, through which tourists were regularly passing.

- Dhairyasheel Dayal

Spotted Worm Lizard (Amphisbaena fuliginosa), Blind Snake (Typhlops lumbricalis) & Sheild-Tailed Snake (Uropeltidae), Dictionnaire Universel D'histoire Naturelle (1892) - Charles Dessalines D’Orbigny