Boaedon capensis, the Cape house snake, also known as the brown house snake, is a species of lamprophiid from Botswana, South Africa (from KwaZulu-Natal all the way through to the Western Cape), Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They are a non-venomous lamprophiid. This species was previously grouped in the genus Lamprophis but is regrouped with the genus Boaedon.
I have always heard of brown house snakes, but never took the time to look them up and see what they look like. All I knew was they like living in peoples homes, are very tranquil, non-venomous and of course hence the name are brown snakes. But I always imagined the snake been a boring plain ugly brown color…
So imagine my surprise to find out that they are not such ugly snakes and that have beautiful white markings on their face, almost like the Indian tribes….
We were cleaning up our yard and found this cute snake underneath a pile of junk under an old trailer, we obviously suspected there would be snakes around and under the trailer, hence the clean up (less place for the snakes to hide in)… We were always quite concerned about that area because unfortunately our dogs never back down from a fight, would rather not take a chance in finding a venomous snake that could potentially kill our dogs…
I was really not expecting to find a small brown house snake underneath there. As I mentioned before it was much prettier than I expected, if the dogs weren’t so volatile to strange creatures I might’ve tried keeping it as a pet.
Well at least this one did not have an encounter with the dogs and got to see another day, at least I hope nothing else caught it later…
I will definitely not consider a brown House Snake ordinary after seeing this one…
Their Appearance:
Cape house snakes are usually dark brown on top, but the color varies greatly from almost black through brown to olive green. The stripes that stretch from the rostral scale through the eye to the back of the head are very strong, thick, and bold. This species may have a lateral stripe running down the flanks, often resembling the links of a chain. They also sometimes have lateral stripes running along either side of the spine. Linking lines between the lateral striping is not uncommon. These body markings tend to be a paler brown/cream in color on top of the often dark, chocolate-brown base tones. These markings normally fade two-thirds of the way down the body until only the base color remains, but there are exceptions to the rule. Individuals without pattern are often found in the wild. These individuals have the head markings but no other markings on top of an often pale-brown body. Like all house snakes, Boaedon capensis is very iridescent, their scales often shining with an oily sheen in certain lights.
Some fun facts about this Snake, their habitat and size:
- Like most frogs, the female Brown house Snakes grow larger than the males – Males will only grow up to 61–76 cm and the Females can grow up to 120 cm. Most probably the one we found was still a juvenile, cause it was relatively small compared to these measurements….
- Contrary to popular belief, humans very rarely will introduce Brown House snakes to their homes, instead these snakes will rather welcome themselves into your home and help keep your rodent problem at bay…
- Their favorite food is of course small rodents such as mice and rats and won’t mind eating a whole nest of mice/rats in one sitting. Although most people hate any kind of snake – I guess it’s in our human nature, since they did betray us on the garden of Eden- they an still be useful, if I have to choose between a non-venomous snake and rats that chew all your furniture and eat your food, I will definitely choose the snake that eats the mice/rats, also I doubt the snake will bite you for no reason like mice and rats do…
- Mature Brown House Snakes generally breed 1 or 2 times a year.
- These snakes are completely harmless, but don’t annoy them they might not like it and bite you… Depending on the person the snake bites, the poor snake might loose it’s life for human negligence…
- Don’t kill these snakes because you don’t feel like rehabilitating them, remember they are helping you get rid of your pests for FREE… So have a bit of respect for them!
- The Brown House Snake is the largest of it’s species – there are 7 different similar snakes which are classified under the same name.
- Like most reptiles they use the sun to warm up their bodies
- These snakes are not total savages, they at least kill their prey before consuming them, like most non-venomous snakes they are constrictors and will suffocate their prey before eating them, like a Python.
- These snakes to have teeth so be careful when handling them, you won’t die, but I can’t imagine it been a good experience been bitten by any snake
- Brown house snakes try act like possums in the face of death! For those who don’t know the possum way, they play dead in the face of prey…
- Some of their natural predators include owls and larger snakes
Thanks for reading this post and hope you found this useful Info…
Our factual sources for this article came from: Wikepedia and Animal Talk
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