Reptilia · Squamata
Pseudonaja guttataParker, 1926
Spotted Brown Snake
Photograph by dhfischer, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 140 cm nose to tail.
Also called Speckled Brown Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Elapidae › Pseudonaja
- Grows to
- 1400mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 13years
Longer than 76% of all elapid snakes 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 219 to 5,710 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
41 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
- 2017
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 13years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 23°C73 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 21–25.4°C70–78 °F
12 (Stark et al. 2020), over 13 (Eipper and Eipper 2022)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1053mm3 ft 5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 707mm2 ft 4 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1400mm4 ft 7 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 679mm2 ft 3 in
- Largest male · snout to vent
- 707mm2 ft 4 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 202mm8 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 245mm9.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 332.7g11.7 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 5.8g0.2 oz
1400 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Eipper and Eipper 2022 (mean 900 mm, 170 g, max 1200 mm, 280 g; hatchlings 245 mm, 8.1 g), Shine 1989 (max SVL 1053, females 480-980, mean 707 mm SVL), Shine 1994 (65 males 36-105 .3, mean 67.9 cm SVL; 52 females 48-98, mean 70.7 cm SVL; hatchling SVL 202 mm)
snakes only in this source
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
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
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Grassland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Australo-Pacific
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 13–801m
- Range size
- 737,601km²
mammals, other elapids, lizards and reptile eggs (Eipper and Eipper 2022), Shine 1989 (all vertebrate classes)
Active (Feldman 2015)
(Scharf et al. 2015), diurnal, occasionally crepuscular at hot weather (Eipper and Eipper 2022)
Scharf et al. 2015
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 5.8eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–17eggs
- Mean clutch
- 5.8eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 2per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
Feldman et al. 2015, Meiri et al. 2019
3-9 mean=5.83 s.d.=1.01 n=6 (Shine 1989), 6 (Mirtschin et al. 2017), 3-17, average 11 (Eipper and Eipper 2022), Shine 1994 (3-9, mean 5.8, n = 6 clutches)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Parker
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1926
- Type locality
- Australia
Keeping one
4 ft 7 in × 2 ft 4 in × 3 ft 5 in(140 × 70 × 105 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
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 total length of 4 ft 7 in (1400 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 73 °F (23 °C).
Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
34kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 333 g, the heaviest recorded for Spotted Brown 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 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 · 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
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — 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 Elapidae
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). Pseudonaja guttata. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/pseudonaja-guttata
@misc{pseudonaja_guttata_2026,
title = {Pseudonaja guttata},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/pseudonaja-guttata}
}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.