Reptilia · Squamata
Paraxenodermus borneensisBoulenger, 1899
Borneo Red Snake
Photograph by Nelly de Rooij, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A rock-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating lizard from the Oriental region, reaching 789 mm nose to tail.
Once published as Stoliczkia borneensis — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Xenodermidae › Paraxenodermus
- Grows to
- 789mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Saxicolous
Longer than 89% of all species in Xenodermidae 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 177.9 to 870 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
25 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
- 2011
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Vertical slit
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 541mm21.5 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 789mm2 ft 7 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 55.5g2 oz
750 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), 789 mm total length, 541 mm SVL (Lalronunga et al. 2021b), Deepak et al. 2021d (SVLs 481 and 541, totals 713 and 789 mm, respectively, both males, see also Malsawmdawngliana et al. 2022)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Dietcomputed
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Oriental
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 800–2100m
- Range size
- 331,913km²
no actual data but can be imputed as carnivorous like all snakes
(O'Shea 2018), "Information is not available for the holotype, but all other reported individuals were found late at night, moving slowly on rocky banks of streams at elevations of 950–2,100 m above sea level (Das 2006a)." Deepak et al. 2021d
Arboreal (O'Shea 2018), "moving slowly on rocky banks of streams at elevations of 950–2,100 m above sea level (Das 2006a)." (Deepak et al. 2021d)
800-1800 (O'Shea 2018), 950–2,100 m above sea level (Deepak et al. 2021d)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Boulenger
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1899
- Type locality
- Malaysia
Keeping one
7 ft 1 in × 7 ft 1 in × 4 ft 5 in(216 × 216 × 135 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.
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 snout-vent length of 21.5 in (541 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Borneo Red Snake. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
7kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 56 g, the heaviest recorded for Borneo Red 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Sex decided by
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Habitat
- — Active in
Others in Xenodermidae
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). Paraxenodermus borneensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/paraxenodermus-borneensis
@misc{paraxenodermus_borneensis_2026,
title = {Paraxenodermus borneensis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/paraxenodermus-borneensis}
}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.