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The Æsculapian grass snake |
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Monday, 21 July 2008 |
Jon Bryant, in the Gard/Bouches-du-Rhône area, has a strange encounter in his workshop. French News trainee Elise Lacombe looks it up.
Photos by Jon
Bryant, who found
this couleuvre inside his garage.
Zamenis longissimus is better known as the Æsculapian grass
snake (couleuvre d’Esculape, named after the Roman god of
medicine Æsculapius). It belongs to the family of colubrides. Thin
and elegant, its scales are smooth and shiny. As one of the longest
grass snakes, growing to up to two metres, it is a favourite with the
French. More commonly, it measures around 1.50m.
This grass snake is found almost all over France, in copses,
verges, meadows, sunny dry places, rocky hillsides and ruins. You
might very well
see it up a tree as it
is very agile and a
good climber and
may nest there.
This type of grass
snake is relatively
unaggressive; it
kills its larger
prey by
squeezing it
to death. It
feeds on
lizards, birds
and their
eggs. As a
defensive
gesture, it will
exude a
nauseous smell
of rotten fish.
Thanks to Chris Luck for confirming the
snake’s ID.
See: www.planetepassion.com
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