Reptilia · Squamata
Oligodon russeliusDaudin, 1803
Churah Valley Kukri snake
Photograph by Ramit Singal, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 275 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Oligodon churahensis — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Oligodon
- Grows to
- 275mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
Longer than only 7% 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
20 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
- 275mm11 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 187mm7.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 9.35g0.33 oz
Mirza et al. 2021b "A medium sized Oligodon (SVL 275 mm)" - presumably of the female holotype
Bandara et al. 2022 (8 males, SVL: 326.0–468.0, 5 females 318.0–320.0 mm SVL, but "adults reach maximum SVL 650 mm"; "SVLs of the hatchlings are around 181.0–193.0 mm (Wall 1921)")
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Dietcomputed
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 1860–1870m
no actual data but can be imputed as carnivorous like all snakes
"The holotype and the paratype were found actively moving along a mud road around 20:00 hours (Fig. 6b). Additionally, five more individuals (uncollected) of the species were encountered at the same locality between the last weeks of May to late June 2020.All the individuals were found near the village after dusk."
"The holotype and the paratype were found actively moving along a mud road around 20:00 hours" (Mirza et al. 2021b)
1864 (Mirza et al. 2021b)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4–5eggs
"The clutch contains four or five remarkably elongate eggs" (Bandara et al. 2022)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Daudin
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1803
- Type locality
- India
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.
1kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 9 g, the heaviest recorded for Churah Valley Kukri 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 · 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
- — Average clutch
- — 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
- — 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). Oligodon russelius. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/oligodon-russelius
@misc{oligodon_russelius_2026,
title = {Oligodon russelius},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/oligodon-russelius}
}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.