Reptilia · Squamata
Rhabdophis leonardiWall, 1923
Leonard's Keelback
Photograph by Ronith Urs, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating snake from the Oriental region, reaching 811 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Rhabdophis
- Grows to
- 811mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Semi-aquatic
Longer than 61% of all colubrid 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 98 to 3,800 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
33 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
- 2011
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Green
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 655mm2 ft 2 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 541mm21.5 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 811mm2 ft 8 in
- Female length · mean, nose to tail
- 690mm2 ft 3 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 128mm5 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 166mm6.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 138.6g4.9 oz
1060 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Yang et al. 2023 ("the holotype is a female, with a snout-vent length of 604 mm and a tail length of 122 mm", 2 others total length 598 and 615 mm, SVLs 499 & 519 mm; female hatchling 166 mm total length, 38 mm tail - but strangely suggest max total length is 670 mm), Nguyen and David 2023 (4 males 356-490 mm SVL, total length 462-660 mm; 9 females, maybe 4 adults 464-640 mm SVL, 660-785 TL in 3 of them, mean 733, and "The maximum length reported for Rhabdophis leonardi is 811 mm (SVL 655 mm; TaL 156 mm; specimen CIB 74II0236, female; Yang and Rao, 2008:325).")
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
- Semi-aquatic
- Habitat
- Grassland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Oriental
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 1250–2850m
- Range size
- 469,216km²
Anurans, earthworms, snails and slugs (Yang et al. 2023)
Wang et al. 2023
Feldman 2015
Terrestrial (Feldman 2015), Semi-Aquatic (Deepak et al. 2022)
IUCN (1250 to 2850), Yang et al. 2023 (1730–2475 m)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 15eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
Yang et al. 2023; n = 1
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Wall
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1923
- Type locality
- Burma
Keeping one
2 ft 8 in × 16 in × 24 in(81 × 41 × 61 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 2 ft 8 in (811 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Leonard's Keelback. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
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.
16kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 139 g, the heaviest recorded for Leonard's Keelback — 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — Fangs
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — 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
Others in Colubridae
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). Rhabdophis leonardi. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhabdophis-leonardi
@misc{rhabdophis_leonardi_2026,
title = {Rhabdophis leonardi},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhabdophis-leonardi}
}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.