Grass Snake Natrix natrix - some photos and notes

Grass Snake Natrix natrix

Monks Eleigh Garden, Suffolk, England
June 2009

The Grass Snake is distributed throughout most of Europe and east through central Asia to about Lake Baikal. In Britain it is found in the lowlands of England with a few records in Wales.

It is Britain's largest terrestrial reptile. This individual was close to 1 metre in length. It is not venomous.

It is generally associated with water and this is normally where this rather elusive species is seen. It feeds on frogs, toads, newts, small mammals and occasionally worms. These it swallows alive and whole. It can take a long time to digest a large meal and can survive on only a few large meals in a season.

It is preyed upon by badgers, foxes, domestic cats, hedgehogs and some birds. Its main form of defense is to play dead and it will hiss and eject a smelly liquid though it rarely bites.

There is more information and excellent videos and photos on ARKive.

Back to Index

If you do not see a menu on the left, you may have arrived at this page from another site. Please click Home to get to my main page.