Reptilia · Squamata
Ahaetulla prasinaBoie, 1827
Jade Vine Snake
Photograph by Mark Bolnik, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Oriental region, reaching 197 cm nose to tail.
Also called Asian vine snake, Gunther’s whip snake, Oriental Whipsnake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Ahaetulla
- Grows to
- 1970mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Arboreal
Longer than 95% of all colubrid snakes anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 98 to 3,800 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
37 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2021
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Green
- Pattern on the back
- Banded, blotched
- Pupil
- Keyhole
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1970mm6 ft 6 in
- Female length · mean, nose to tail
- 1320mm4 ft 4 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 278.5mm11 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 365mm14.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 589.2g1.3 lb
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 3.55g0.13 oz
snakes only in this source
1970 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), neonate total lengths 240-490 mm in the literature, in their data ona clutch of 4: 408–450 mm; snout-vent length 270–287 mm; weight 3.40–3.71 g), 1 gravid female 1320 total length, 845 mm SVL (Lalremsanga et al. 2022d), Indahsari et al. 2020 (1 female 432 mm SVL, 454.5 mm tl), Wang et al. 2023 (female standard length [probably total length, unsure] 1545~1650 mm), Cox et al. 2012 (mean 1200-1500, max 1970 mm, neonates 240-499 mm - 499 sounds too large)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Oriental
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Lowest it lives · above sea level
- 90m
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2100m
- Range size
- 4,694,578km²
small mammals, birds, lizards, frogs, snakes (Wang et al. 2023), frogs. Lizards and birds (Cox et al. 2012)
Active (O'Shea 2018)
O'Shea 2018, Cox et al. 2012
Feldman 2015, Meneses et al. 2022, Cox et al. 2012
0-1380 (O'Shea 2018), 0-2100 (Feldman 2015), 700-2100 (Cox et al. 2012)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 10eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4–10eggs
(Feldman et al. 2015, Cox et al. 2012), ovoviviparous (Lalremsanga et al. 2022d)
4-10 (Whitaker and Captain 2004, O'Shea 2018, Lalremsanga et al. 2022d, Cox et al. 2012)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Ahaetulla prasina prasina (BOIE 1827) Ahaetulla prasina medioxima LAZELL 2002 Ahaetulla prasina preocularis (TAYLOR 1922) Ahaetulla prasina suluensis GAULKE 1995
- Described by
- Boie
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1827
- Type locality
- Indonesia
Keeping one
4 ft 10 in × 3 ft 3 in × 9 ft 8 in(148 × 99 × 296 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 0.75 × 0.5 × 1.5.
Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own total length of 6 ft 6 in (1970 mm), at 0.75 × 0.5 × 1.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Jade Vine Snake. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
57kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 589 g, the heaviest recorded for Jade Vine Snake — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
Morphs
1 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 0 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
Tang et al. (2023) "investigate color morph-enriched Asian vine snakes (Ahaetulla prasina), to explore the mechanism underpinning color variations. Transmission electron microscopy imaging and metabolomics analysis indicates that chromatophore morphology (mainly iridophores) is t
- Genetic mapping and molecular mechanism behind color variation in the Asian vine snake. — Genome Biol 2023
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Colubridae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Ahaetulla prasina. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/ahaetulla-prasina
@misc{ahaetulla_prasina_2026,
title = {Ahaetulla prasina},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/ahaetulla-prasina}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.