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Squamata · ColubridaeEntry 6,417 of 21,572
Luzon Bronze-back Tree Snake, Dendrelaphis luzonensis

Reptilia · Squamata

Dendrelaphis luzonensisLeviton, 1961

Luzon Bronze-back Tree Snake

Photograph by Brown R, Siler C, Oliveros C, Welton L, Rock A, Swab J, Van…, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons

A tree-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Oriental region, reaching 130 cm snout to vent.

ReptiliaSquamataColubridaeDendrelaphis

Grows to
1295mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Arboreal
Body length across Colubridae

Longer than 94% of all colubrid snakes anyone has measured.

94% of 908 species are smaller6% larger
133.8 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest2,790 mm

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 133.8 to 2,790 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

27 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
Black, Brown
Pattern on the back
Striped
Fangs
At the back of the mouth

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
1295mm4 ft 3 in

1295 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016), adult TL 741.0–1123.0 mm (Meneses et al. 2022)

Body mass · greatestcomputed
381.5g13.5 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Dietcomputed
Carnivorous

no actual data but can be imputed as carnivorous like all snakes

Active
Diurnal
Where it lives
Arboreal

(Bars-Closel et al. 2017), semi arboreal (Meneses et al. 2022) but their specimens were found in trees,

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Region
Oriental
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Range size
91,603km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous

Feldman et al. 2015

Average clutch
4.5eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Serpentes
Infraorder
Alethinophidia
Subspecies
No
Described by
Leviton
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1961
Type locality
Philippines

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.

39kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 382 g, the heaviest recorded for Luzon Bronze-back Tree 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
  • Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • 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
  • 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
  • Body mass at hatching
  • 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 it hunts
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • 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
  • Venomous
  • 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
  • Lowest it lives · above sea level
  • Highest it lives · above sea level

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). Dendrelaphis luzonensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/dendrelaphis-luzonensis

@misc{dendrelaphis_luzonensis_2026,
  title  = {Dendrelaphis luzonensis},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/dendrelaphis-luzonensis}
}

Sources

  1. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  2. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.