Reptilia · Squamata
Rhabdophis tigrinusBoie, 1826
Tiger Keelback
Photograph by Repina Tatyana, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Palearctic region, reaching 101 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Rhabdophis
- Grows to
- 1013mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 3.1years
Longer than 72% 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
40 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
2 pairs of these figures disagree
Length snout to vent (greatest recorded) is given as 1,108, and Length nose to tail (greatest recorded) as 1,013 — but snout to vent is part of the animal's total length, not more than it. They come from different sources and both are shown exactly as those sources give them.
Lowest it lives (above sea level) is given as 579, and Highest it lives (above sea level) as 100 — but the lowest place it is found cannot be above the highest. They come from different sources and both are shown exactly as those sources give them.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2016
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Green
- Longest recorded life
- 3.1years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 17.9°C64 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 10.5–35.5°C51–96 °F
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 181.9mm7.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 253.6g8.9 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 3.19g0.11 oz
- Length snout to vent · greatest recordeddisputed
- 1108mm3 ft 8 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recordeddisputed
- 1013mm3 ft 4 in
1013 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016),
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
snakes only in this source
How it lives
- Dietcomputed
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland, Shrubland
- Biome
- Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
- Region
- Palearctic
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Range size
- 5,567,021km²
- Lowest it lives · above sea leveldisputed
- 579m
- Highest it lives · above sea leveldisputed
- 100m
no actual data but can be imputed as carnivorous like all snakes
Wang et al. 2023
(Murphy et al. 2003, Deepak et al. 2022), R. formosanus Semiaquatic (Deepak et al. 2022)
near the coast (Dunayev and Orlova 2023, so I write 0-100)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 22.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 12–25eggs
- Mean clutch
- 20eggs
- Egg length
- 40mm1.5 in
- Egg width
- 20mm0.8 in
- First breeds at
- 24months
Feldman et al. 2015
18-25 (O'Shea 2011, Dunayev and Orlova 2023), about 12 (Murphy et al. 2003), Kidov et al. 2022 (60 eggs - which they suspect is from 3 females)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Rhabdophis tigrinus tigrinus (BOIE 1826) Rhabdophis tigrinus formosanus (MAKI 1931)
- Described by
- Boie
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1826
- Type locality
- Japan
Keeping one
3 ft 4 in × 20 in × 2 ft 6 in(101 × 51 × 76 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 3 ft 4 in (1013 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 64 °F (17.9 °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.
27kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 254 g, the heaviest recorded for Tiger 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.
Morphs
1 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 0 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
- Leucismpeer reviewed
- The first record of leucism in the Rhabdophis tigrinus (Boie, 1826) (Squamata, Colubridae) in South Korea. — Ecol Evol 2024
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 · nose to tail
- — 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
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — 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
- — 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 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 tigrinus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhabdophis-tigrinus
@misc{rhabdophis_tigrinus_2026,
title = {Rhabdophis tigrinus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhabdophis-tigrinus}
}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.