Reptilia · Squamata
Pseudaspis canaLinnaeus, 1758
Mole Snake
Photograph by Wynand Uys, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 240 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Pseudaspididae › Pseudaspis
- Grows to
- 2400mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 20years
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
- 2014
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 20years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1820mm6 ft
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 2400mm7 ft 10 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 255mm10 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 1374.1g3 lb
2400 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Barends and Maritz 2021 (SVL: 452-1130, mean 823.64 ± 214.69, n = 14; female SVL: mean 844.33 ± 231.8, range 490-1109, n = 6 - all adults?) , average 1000-1400, large speimens 2000 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 1265 mm in males, 1820 mm in females, hatchlings 200-310 mm TL), 504.3 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History), Marais 2022 (adults average 70-120 cm, max 2.13 m; newborn 20-31 cm), Trape 2023 (80-210 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
- Mixed
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 1200–2600m
- Range size
- 5,322,951km²
mainly rodents (Pietersen et al. 2021), mammals and reptiles (van Huyssteen 2023), rodents, birds and eggs of tortoises and birds, juveniles eat lizards (Marais 2022), juveniles eat lizards, adults eat rodents (Malonza and Bwong 2023, Trape 2023)
(van Huyssteen 2023), Trape 2023: hunts mole rats in burrows, so active
Adults feed on mole rats and other rodents, while juveniles, which are more diurnal, take lizards (Broadley and Blaylock 2013), basks in the sunshine (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), diurnal (Pietersen et al. 2021, van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022, Malonza and Bwong 2023)
Fossorial (Bates et al. 2014, Malonza and Bwong 2023), mostly underground in rodent burrows (Pietersen et al. 2021), fossorial and terrestrial (van Huyssteen 2023), fossorial and arboreal - frequently hunts bids in trees and molerats underground (Marais 2022), terrestrial (Trape 2023)
1200-2600 (Malonza and Bwong 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 34eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 20–95eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
30-50 (Chippaux and Jackson 2019), 95 (Marais 2005), 25-50, but as many as 95 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022), 20-40 (Branch 1998), 25-40 but up to 95 (Branch 1998, Bates et al. 2014)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Linnaeus
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1758
- Type locality
- Indiis” (in error)
Keeping one
23 ft 11 in × 23 ft 11 in × 14 ft 11 in(728 × 728 × 455 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 3 ft (91 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 6 ft (1820 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 Mole 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.
121kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 1,374 g, the heaviest recorded for Mole 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — Active in
Others in Pseudaspididae
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). Pseudaspis cana. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/pseudaspis-cana
@misc{pseudaspis_cana_2026,
title = {Pseudaspis cana},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/pseudaspis-cana}
}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.