Reptilia · Squamata
Prosymna lisimaConradie, Keates, Baptista, Lobón-Rovira, 2022
Kalahari Shovel-snout snake
No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 303 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Prosymnidae › Prosymna
- Grows to
- 303mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
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
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 303mm12 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 10.15g0.36 oz
Conradie et al. 2022 (7 males 138–198 mean 180.7 ± 20.5 mm SVL, 3 females 168–275, mean 214.3 ± 54.9mm SVL but values in Table 4 are considerably lower, e.g., max total length 222.6 mm, in p124 bottom: Largest female: 275+28 mm)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 950–1450m
lizard eggs (Conradie et al. 2022)
"on two different occasions, three specimens (two males and one female) were caught on the same night in the same trap array" (Conradie et al. 2022) - so I infer nocturnal and terrestrial activity
1248-1426 in the specimen accounts and "The elevation ranges between 950 and 1450 m a.s.l." in the text (Conradie et al. 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3eggs
Conradie et al. 2022
Conradie et al. 2022, n = 1
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Conradie, Keates, Baptista, Lobón-Rovira
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 2022
- Type locality
- Angola
Keeping one
3 ft 7 in × 3 ft 7 in × 2 ft 3 in(110 × 110 × 69 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.
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 11 in (275 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 Kalahari Shovel-snout 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.
2kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 10 g, the heaviest recorded for Kalahari Shovel-snout 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
- — 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 Prosymnidae
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). Prosymna lisima. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/prosymna-lisima
@misc{prosymna_lisima_2026,
title = {Prosymna lisima},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/prosymna-lisima}
}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.