Reptilia · Squamata
Aspidelaps scutatusSmith, 1849
Shield-nose Snake
Photograph by Ryan van Huyssteen, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 750 mm nose to tail.
Also called Speckled Shield Cobra.
Reptilia › Squamata › Elapidae › Aspidelaps
- Grows to
- 750mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 13.6years
Longer than only 37% of all elapid 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 219 to 5,710 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.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2019
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Black, Red, Yellow
- Pattern on the back
- Banded
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 13.6years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 391.5mm15.5 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 750mm2 ft 6 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 170mm6.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 126.3g4.5 oz
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 90–1400m
- Range size
- 1,510,668km²
amphibians, mammals and reptiles (van Huyssteen 2023), frogs, snakes lizards and small mammals (Marais 2022)
Active (Broadley & Baldwin 2006, van Huyssteen 2023)
Bates et al. 2014, van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022
Fossorial&Terrestrial (Bates et al. 2014, van Huyssteen 2023)
90-1400 (Bates et al. 2014)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 9eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–14eggs
- Mean clutch
- 7.9–8.3eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
4-14 (O'Shea 2011, Marais 2005, Marais 2022), 3-11 (Bates et al. 2014), 4-11 means: 7.9 & 8.3 (Broadley & Baldwin 2006)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Aspidelaps scutatus fulafulus (BIANCONI 1849) Aspidelaps scutatus intermedius BROADLEY 1968 Aspidelaps scutatus scutatus (SMITH 1849)
- Described by
- Smith
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1849
- Type locality
- South Africa
Keeping one
2 ft 6 in × 15 in × 22 in(75 × 38 × 56 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 15 in (38 cm) deep.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
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 total length of 2 ft 6 in (750 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Shield-nose 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.
14kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 126 g, the heaviest recorded for Shield-nose 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 female mean
- — 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 · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — 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
- — 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 Elapidae
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). Aspidelaps scutatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/aspidelaps-scutatus
@misc{aspidelaps_scutatus_2026,
title = {Aspidelaps scutatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/aspidelaps-scutatus}
}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.