Reptilia · Squamata
Anilios affinisBoulenger, 1889
Small-headed Blind Snake
Photograph by graham armstrong, CC BY 4.0, via GBIF
A burrowing, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 220 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Typhlopidae › Anilios
- Grows to
- 220mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Fossorial
Longer than only 26% of all species in Typhlopidae 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 91 to 950 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
35 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Two of these figures disagree
Length snout to vent (greatest recorded) is given as 305, and Length nose to tail (greatest recorded) as 220 — but snout to vent is part of the animal's total length, not more than it. They come from different sources and both are shown exactly as those sources give them.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2017
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Brown, Gray
- Pattern on the back
- Uniform
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
Size
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 252mm10 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 95mm3.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 9.85g0.35 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.08g0 oz
- Length snout to vent · greatest recordeddisputed
- 305mm12 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recordeddisputed
- 220mm8.75 in
220 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Khouri et al. 2022 ("Shine & Webb (1990) found that males and females of Anilios affinis reach sexual maturity with 172 and 206 mm SVL, respectively (average SVL in males = 206 mm; females = 252 mm)," ), Shine 1994 (5 males 17.2-26.4, mean 20.6 cm SVL; 4 females 20.6-30.5, mean 25.2 cm SVL; hatchling SVL 95 mm)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Dietcomputed
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Australo-Pacific
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 8–739m
- Range size
- 705,635km²
no actual data but can be imputed as carnivorous like all snakes
imputed value from Feldman 2015
Cogger 2018
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 3eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3eggs
Meiri et al. 2019
mean 3 (Meiri et al. 2019, Khouri et al. 2022), Shine 1994 (3, n = 1)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Scolecophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Boulenger
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1889
- Type locality
- Australia
Keeping one
4 ft × 4 ft × 2 ft 6 in(122 × 122 × 76 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 6 in (15 cm) deep.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Burrows, so substrate deep enough to dig in matters as much as floor area.
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 snout-vent length of 12 in (305 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Small-headed Blind Snake. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
1kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 10 g, the heaviest recorded for Small-headed Blind 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.
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 · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — 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
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — 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
- — 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
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Population trend
- — 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 Typhlopidae
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). Anilios affinis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anilios-affinis
@misc{anilios_affinis_2026,
title = {Anilios affinis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anilios-affinis}
}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.