Reptilia · Squamata
Psammophis mossambicusPeters, 1882
Olive Whip Snake
Identification not confirmed. One observer recorded this animal as this species and no one has since agreed, so the photograph may show a different animal.
Photograph by Tristan Jobin, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 183 cm nose to tail.
Also called Olive Grass Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Psammophiidae › Psammophis
- Grows to
- 1830mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 10.3years
Longer than 91% of all species in Psammophiidae 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 380 to 2,500 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
32 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
- Longest recorded life
- 10.3years
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1415mm4 ft 8 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1830mm6 ft
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 153mm6 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 285mm11 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 734g1.6 lb
1800 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Parrinha 2020 (153-1415 mm SVL), usually ~900, max 1830 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 1415 mm for males, 1285 mm for females, hatchlings 270-300 mm SVL), Marais 2022 (adults average 0.6-1 m but may reach 1.8 m, hatchlings 27-30 cm), Spawls et al. 2023 (1-1.8 m, hatchlings 28-33 cm)
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
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2500m
- Range size
- 4,569,386km²
lizards (Conradie et al. 2021), a variety of vertebrates (Pietersen et al. 2021, Trape 2023), arthropods, mammals and reptiles (van Huyssteen 2023), lizards, small mammals frogs, birds and snakes (Marais 2022, Malonza and Bwong 2023, see also Spawls et al. 202)
van Huyssteen 2023
sun loving (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), diurnal (Pietersen et al. 2021, van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Trape 2023, Spawls et al. 202)
"scansorial (climber)" (Gearty et al. 2021), can climb and swim well (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), often seen on roads (Pietersen et al. 2021), terrestrial (van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022, Malonza and Bwong 2023), partially arboreal (Spawls et al. 2020
from sea level to approximately 1500 (Bates et al. 2014), 240-848 (Conradie et al. 2021), max 2500 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 4.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–30eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1per year
Feldman et al. 2015
1-30 (Bates et al. 2014), 6-30 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Marais 2022), 10-30 (Pietersen et al. 2021), 8-30 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Peters
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1882
- Type locality
- Mozambique
Keeping one
18 ft 7 in × 18 ft 7 in × 18 ft 7 in(566 × 566 × 566 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
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 4 ft 8 in (1415 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Olive Whip 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.
69kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 734 g, the heaviest recorded for Olive Whip 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Psammophiidae
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). Psammophis mossambicus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammophis-mossambicus
@misc{psammophis_mossambicus_2026,
title = {Psammophis mossambicus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammophis-mossambicus}
}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.