Reptilia · Squamata
Leptodeira ornataBocourt, 1884
Northern Cat-eyed Snake
Photograph by Hugo Bernal Hernández, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Neotropic region, reaching 646 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Leptodeira ornatus — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Leptodeira
- Grows to
- 646mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Arboreal
Longer than 55% 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 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
18 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
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 646mm2 ft 1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 84.26g3 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 17g0.6 oz
Torres-Carvajal et al. 2020 (630 mm max SVL of females, males 443 mm), Costa et al. 2022b (SVL in males 341–543 mm and females 343–646 mm;), Griesbaum et al. 2023 (ca. 1000 mm total length;says a 500 mm individual is a juvenile; much larger than what I have)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1830m
toads (Griesbaum et al. 2023)
preying "At about 21.00 h on 29 August 2022" and at 00.30 h (Griesbaum et al. 2023, n = 2)
Griesbaum et al. 2023, n = 1
max 1830, min inferred as sea level from Costa et al. 2022b, 0-1940 (Cruz-Garcia et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Bocourt
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1884
- Type locality
- Panama
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.
10kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 84 g, the heaviest recorded for Northern Cat-eyed 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 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
- — Reproduction
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Average clutch
- — 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
- — Fangs
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Conservation status
- — Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Biome
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Habitat
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
- — Range size
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). Leptodeira ornata. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/leptodeira-ornata
@misc{leptodeira_ornata_2026,
title = {Leptodeira ornata},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/leptodeira-ornata}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.