Reptilia · Squamata
Prosymna stuhlmanniPfeffer, 1893
East African Shovel-Snout
Photograph by John Lyakurwa, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A nocturnal, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 350 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Prosymnidae › Prosymna
- Grows to
- 350mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Fossorial, terrestrial
What is known
29 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
- 2014
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 263mm10.5 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 350mm14 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 140mm5.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 9.04g0.32 oz
350 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), 220-300, unconfirmed reports of specimens reaching 460 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 225 mm in males, 263 mm in females), Marais 2022 (adults average 18-25 cm, max about 350 mm, hatchling just over 140 mm), Spawls et al. 2023 (max 27 cm in males 30 cm in females)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 40–50m
- Range size
- 1,498,265km²
reptile eggs and young lizards (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), almost exclusively gecko eggs, opportunistically termote alates (Pietersen et al. 2021), reptile egg specialist (van Huyssteen 2023)
van Huyssteen 2023
This little snake is usually found under rocks and logs during the day… It may be found prowling on the surface after dark (Broadley and Blaylock 2013), nocturnal (van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022, Malonza and Bwong 2023)
Fossorial (Bates et al. 2014), It may be found prowling on the surface after dark (Broadley and Blaylock 2013), on the surface after rainstorms (Pietersen et al. 2021), fossorial and terrestrial (van Huyssteen 2023), less fossorial than other members of the genus (Marais 2022),
51 n=1 (Ping & Hundermark 2020)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 3
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–4eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
midpoint of the reported range — Meiri, 2024, Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr., 33:e13812
3-6 (Chippaux and Jackson 2019, who write this for each species in the genus), 3-4 (Marais 2005, Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Branch 1988, Pietersen et al. 2021, Spawls et al. 2023), 2, n=1 (Ping & Hundermark 2020), 2-4 (Marais 2022)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Pfeffer
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1893
- Type locality
- Tanzania
Keeping one
3 ft 5 in × 3 ft 5 in × 2 ft 2 in(105 × 105 × 66 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 5.25 in (13 cm) deep.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Burrows, so substrate deep enough to dig in matters as much as floor area.
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 10.5 in (263 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 East African Shovel-Snout. 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.
1kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 9 g, the heaviest recorded for East African Shovel-Snout — 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
- — 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 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
- — 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
- — Pupil
- — 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
- — Active in
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 stuhlmanni. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/prosymna-stuhlmanni
@misc{prosymna_stuhlmanni_2026,
title = {Prosymna stuhlmanni},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/prosymna-stuhlmanni}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.
- 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.