Reptilia · Squamata
Rhamphiophis rostratusPeters, 1854
Rufous Beaked Snake
Photograph by Stephanie Dolrenry, CC BY-SA, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 160 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Psammophiidae › Rhamphiophis
- Grows to
- 1600mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 13.3years
Longer than 79% of all species in Psammophiidae 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 380 to 2,500 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
34 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
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 13.3years
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1105mm3 ft 8 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1600mm5 ft 3 in
- Female length · mean, nose to tail
- 991mm3 ft 3 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 330mm13 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 390g13.8 oz
1600 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Chirio and Ineich 1991 (4 females, 303-756 mm SVL, mean of 3 with SVL >619mm: 675 mm; 937-1081 mm total length mean 991 mm), Wilkey and Terrell 2017 (may reach 1600, usually around 1 meter), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 1105 mm in males, 1070 mm in females), Marais 2022 (adults average 70-100 cm, max 1.6 m, hatchlings 28-41 cm), 70-160 (Trape 2023), Spawls et al. 2023 (80-160, hatchlings 25-32 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
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Lowest it lives · above sea level
- 400m
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2100m
- Range size
- 2,933,982km²
mainly amphibians, also small mammals, lizards, birds and also beetles (Pietersen et al. 2021), amphibians, mammals and reptiles (van Huyssteen 2023), adults eat rodents, lizards, snakes, frogs and birds, juveniles eat mainly lizards but also insects (Marais 2022), see also Trape 2023, Spawls et al. 2023
van Huyssteen 2023
(Pietersen et al. 2021 - who only report this species), diurnal (van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Trape 2023, Spawls et al. 2023), at night (Kirchhof et al. 2023, n = 1)
Bates et al. 2014, Pietersen et al. 2021, van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Kirchhof et al. 2023, Trape 2023, Spawls et al. 2023
400-1000 (Bates et al. 2014), 7000 ft (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), 0-1500 (Malonza and Bwong 2023, Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 12eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4–18eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
7-18 (Marais 2005), 8-18 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), 8-17 (Pietersen et al. 2021), 6-18 (Marais 2022), 4-15 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Peters
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1854
- Type locality
- Mozambique
Keeping one
14 ft 6 in × 14 ft 6 in × 9 ft 1 in(442 × 442 × 276 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
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 3 ft 8 in (1105 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 Rufous Beaked 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.
39kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 390 g, the heaviest recorded for Rufous Beaked 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
- — 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
- — 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 Psammophiidae
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). Rhamphiophis rostratus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhamphiophis-rostratus
@misc{rhamphiophis_rostratus_2026,
title = {Rhamphiophis rostratus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhamphiophis-rostratus}
}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.