Othriophis taeniurus ridleyi. Ridleys Racer. Non-venomous. Lives in caves, eats bats.
Othriophis taeniurus ridleyi (Ridley’s Racer)
Length: up to 2.5 meters. I have caught 5 of these, all of them under 2.25 meters.
Range: Chumpon, Thailand, south to border of Thailand-Malaysia
Habitat: Usually caves, though at times found outside caves. Recently I found one in a bungalow at a nature resort.
Active Time? The snake is mainly nocturnal. The snakes are active during the day only after heavy rainfall.
Food: Bats and probably birds
Defensive Behavior: These Thailand snakes are calm and move slowly unless provoked substantially.
Venom Toxicity: None. Member of rat snake group – so no venom at all, no venom injecting fangs in the front or rear. They have rows of teeth in the upper jaw, but very small – less than 1/8th inch long.
Offspring: Nothing known – still updating this article.
Notes: These are often found in Thailand caves, they are excellent wall climbers. A Buddhist monk walked me through some pitch black caves at a temple with a cave in Southern Thailand and showed me this amazingly colored Ridley’s Racer. This non-venomous snake, part of the rat snake family was calm and let me take video with the camera just 12 inches from her head. Ridley racer snakes hang on cave walls and snatch flying bats out of the air. I have also caught them inside bungalows and on limestone cliff faces.
Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Colubridae
Subfamily: Colubrinae
Genus: Othriophis
Species: taeniurus ridleyi
Ridley’s Racer Video:
Here is another video taken by a visitor from France that was climbing a mountain at a local Buddhist temple and saw this snake during the daytime cruising the limestone rocks:
About Vern Lovic
All posts by Vern Lovic. Amateur herpetologist roaming about Thailand on field herping trips to find cobras, kraits, coral snakes, and other snakes native to Thailand. Thailand has over 200 snake species with many of them venomous.
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a snake in the garden……..length-50 cms….diam–1-2cms
looked all one colour grey to black…
what was it I am in Koh Samui Thailand
Hi Peter… I’m not that good. You’ll have to get a photo. At half a meter it could be juvenile and the snakes change in appearance as they develop. Could be MANY different types with that description.
There was a snake on my front porch the other day. I was out of country on business; my wife thought it was a cobra because it reared its head about a foot from the ground and had a small hood. The snake was cornered by my huskies and then removed by my staff; my wife said that the snake went for one of the huskies but i think if it had been a cobra the husky would have been in trouble. it was about 1.5m in length and “black” (according to a thai which basically means any dark colour)this snake had a barely visibly green line from head to tail. My staff said these snakes are quite common in the moo baan (Muang Ake project, Pathum Thani) We are next to a small lake that contains several water monitors. I am curious to know if you have an idea of what this snake was and also if there are cobras or Kings in this area? as it would present considerable danger to the dogs. many thanks.
Chris