Reptilia · Squamata
Pseudonaja nuchalisGünther, 1858
Gwardar
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, active by day or night, meat-eating snake from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 160 cm nose to tail.
Also called Northern Brown Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Elapidae › Pseudonaja
- Grows to
- 1600mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Lives up to
- 18years
Longer than 83% 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
42 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
- Data Deficient
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2017
- Population trend
- Decreasing
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 18years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 31.8°C89 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 26.84–36.9°C80–98 °F
over 17 (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
- 1565mm5 ft 2 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 870mm2 ft 10 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1600mm5 ft 3 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 195mm7.75 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 248mm9.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 879.3g1.9 lb
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 5.9g0.21 oz
1600 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Lettoof et al. 2023 (SVL 878 mm, mass 444 g), Eipper and Eipper 2022 (mean 1150 mm, 350 g, max 1890 mm, 470 g - too long?, hatchlings 248 mm, 4.9 g), max 1500 mm (Cogger 2014), max SVL 1270 mm (Greer 2022), Shine 1994 (180 males 35.1-156.5, mean 89.5 cm SVL; 84 females 47.4-122, mean 87 cm SVL; hatchling SVL 195 mm)
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
- Cathemeral
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Rocky, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Australo-Pacific
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 2–973m
- Range size
- 4,412,584km²
carnivore (Lazzari et al. 2022), reptiles, reptile eggs and small mammals (Eipper and Eipper 2022), mostly mammals and reptiles (Lettoof et al. 2023)
Diurnal (Cogger 2018), cathemeral (Lazzari et al. 2022, Lettoof et al. 2023), primarily diurnal but active on warm nights (Eipper and Eipper 2022)
Feldman 2015, Lettoof et al. 2023
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 11.7eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 8–38eggs
- Mean clutch
- 11.3–27.2eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
- Egg length
- 37.3mm1.5 in
- Egg width
- 19.3mm0.8 in
Feldman et al. 2015, Meiri et al. 2019
7-19 mean=14.3 n=3, 8-16 mean=12.22 s.d.=0.92 n=9, 7-20 mean=11.38 s.d.=1.75 n=8, 9-38 mean=11.33 s.d.=1.12 n=27 (Shine 1989), 9-38 (O'Shea 2011), mean 12.2 (Lettoof et al. 2023), 8-22, average 12 (Eipper and Eipper 2022), Shine 1977 (24-38, mean 27.2, n = 6), Shine 1994 (9-38, mean 11.3, n = 27 clutches)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Günther
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1858
- Type locality
- Australia
Keeping one
5 ft 3 in × 2 ft 7 in × 3 ft 11 in(160 × 80 × 120 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 5 ft 3 in (1600 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 89 °F (31.8 °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.
81kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 879 g, the heaviest recorded for Gwardar — 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 · 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — 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 nuchalis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/pseudonaja-nuchalis
@misc{pseudonaja_nuchalis_2026,
title = {Pseudonaja nuchalis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/pseudonaja-nuchalis}
}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.