Reptilia · Squamata
Lycodonomorphus rufulusLichtenstein, 1823
Common Water Snake
Photograph by Ryanvanhuyssteen, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
A water-living, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 970 mm nose to tail.
Also called Common Brown Water Snake, Olive-brown Water-Snake, South African Rufous Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Lamprophiidae › Lycodonomorphus
- Grows to
- 970mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 12years
Longer than 76% of all species in Lamprophiidae 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 235 to 1,750 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
33 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
- Pupil
- Vertical slit
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 12years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 800mm2 ft 7 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 970mm3 ft 2 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 185mm7.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 119.5g4.2 oz
Prinsloo and Raw 2020 (970 mm total length, 800 SVL), Barends and Maritz 2021 (SVL: 265-751, mean 411 ± 121.86, n = 17; female SVL: mean 342.4 ± 49.82, range 265-402, n = 5) , Marais 2022 (adults average 30-50, max 97 cm, hatchlings 15-22 cm), Armstrong and Jordaan 2023 (317 mm SVL, 115.0 mm tail, 13.6g, not sure if adult)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Mixed
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Aquatic
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Montane Grasslands & Savannas
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 626–1828m
- Range size
- 887,023km²
frogs, tadpoles and small fishes / amphibians and fishes (van Huyssteen 2023), Marais 2022 (mostly frogs, also tadpoles, fish rodents and geckos)
van Huyssteen 2023
This snake is usually found under logs and stones near water during the day. It emerges fter the dark, or on overcast days, the feed on frogs, tadpoles and small fishes, which are constricted (Broadley and Blaylock 2013), These nocturnal water snakes are common under cover around water margins, and feed mainly on frogs (Branch 1998), nocturnal (van Huyssteen 2023),
(Bates et al. 2014, Branch 1998) semiaquatic (Marais 2022), terrestrial and aquatic (van Huyssteen 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 14.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 6–23eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
4-8 (Chippaux and Jackson 2019), 6-23 (Marais 2005, Branch 1998, Marais 2022)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Lichtenstein
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1823
- Type locality
- South Africa
Keeping one
3 ft 2 in × 19 in × 2 ft 5 in(97 × 49 × 73 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
Spends time in water, so a water area is part of the enclosure rather than a dish.
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 3 ft 2 in (970 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 Common Water 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 119 g, the heaviest recorded for Common Water 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
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — 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 Lamprophiidae
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). Lycodonomorphus rufulus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/lycodonomorphus-rufulus
@misc{lycodonomorphus_rufulus_2026,
title = {Lycodonomorphus rufulus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/lycodonomorphus-rufulus}
}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.