Snake, Western Australia, Dunsborough (1 Viewer)

Hi,

Can anyone tell us what this snake is ? We estimated it was about 1.5m long, had we stretched it out. Most of it is in the photos.

It was being mobbed by a red wattlebird.

Many thanks, Mike.

I was hoping someone with more knowledge of Australian snakes would respond, but since a day has passed here with nothing, I'll put in my 2 cents. However, my knowledge of Australian snakes is quite limited.

That said, this looks like a Western Brown snake to me. At 1.5m, the size is right. Some range maps show Dunsborough within the range of the Western Brown, others show it just outside, including this one:
http://www.pilbarapythons.com/westbrown.htm

Western Browns are quite variable in appearance - here is a gallery, with the darkest one - image 17 of 19 (changes position on the screen depending on the size) - looking very much like your snake:
http://imgarcade.com/1/western-brown-snake/

An additional thought. Examining the first link I gave above, if you click on the range map, you can get range maps of other Australian snakes. It turns out there is another snake in the Brown Snake genus, the Dugite, that has a range restricted to extreme S.W. Australia - right in the Dunsborough area. Dugites look virtually identical to Western Browns, except they can get a little longer. It would seem that, by range, the Dugite would be more likely.

Thank you RJP,

Pardon us for our slow response - we were hoping for more input. The dugite looks more likely but we cannot see any evidence of pale ventral area - but it could easily be hidden, pressed against the ground.

Mike and Shelagh.

No problem! Especially given how many great reptiles they have, we need some Aussies on this group!