Reptilia · Squamata
Telescopus semiannulatusSmith, 1849
Tiger Cat Snake
Photograph by Ewout Knoester, CC BY-SA, via iNaturalist
A nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 105 cm nose to tail.
Also called Common Tiger Snake, Western Tiger Snake.
Once published as Telescopus polystictus — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Telescopus
- Grows to
- 1050mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 7.6years
Longer than 73% 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
37 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
- 2019
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Black, Brown
- Pattern on the back
- Banded, blotched
- Pupil
- Vertical slit
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 7.6years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 880mm2 ft 11 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1050mm3 ft 5 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 200mm7.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 151.3g5.3 oz
1050 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Barends and Maritz 2021 (SVL: 406-683, mean 513.6 ± 87.26, n = 10; female SVL: mean 501.8 ± 77.99, range 406-612, n = 5), 500- over 1000 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 760 mm in males, 880 mm in females; hatchlings 170-230 mm TL), Marais 2022 (adults average 40-70 cm but may exceed 1 m; hatchlings 17-23 cm), Trape 2023 (40-105 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
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Lowest it lives · above sea level
- 151m
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1700m
- Range size
- 6,088,671km²
feed on sleeping chameleons and other lizards (Broadley et al.2003), mainly lizards, also fledgling birds, rodents, and bats (Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022, Malonza and Bwong 2023), birds, mammals and reptiles (van Huyssteen 2023), lizards, birds, snakes and rodents (Trape 2023)
van Huyssteen 2023
Day under bark, emerging at dusk to hunt (Broadley and Blaylock 2013), They are nocturnal and feed on sleeping chameleons and other lizards (Broadley, Doria and Wigge 2003), mainly nocturnal (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), nocturnal (Pietersen et al. 2021, van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Trape 2023)
semi-arboreal (Bars-Closel et al. 2017, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Trape 2023), terrestrial but may be found in bushes and small trees during the day (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), saxicolous and terrestrial (van Huyssteen 2023), mainly terrestrial, also arboreal (Marais 2022)
0-1700 (Malonza and Bwong 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 11.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–20eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
Feldman et al. 2015
3-20 (Marais 2005, Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022), 6-20 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Telescopus semiannulatus polystictus MERTENS 1954 Telescopus semiannulatus semiannulatus SMITH 1849
- Described by
- Smith
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1849
- Type locality
- South Africa
Keeping one
3 ft 5 in × 20.5 in × 5 ft 2 in(105 × 53 × 158 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 × 1.5.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
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 5 in (1050 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 1.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Tiger Cat Snake. 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.
17kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 151 g, the heaviest recorded for Tiger Cat 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.
Other inherited traits
Inherited characteristics and conditions recorded for this species. These are not morphs — nobody breeds for them.
- Amyloidosis1 reference
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 · 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
- — 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
- — 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). Telescopus semiannulatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/telescopus-semiannulatus
@misc{telescopus_semiannulatus_2026,
title = {Telescopus semiannulatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/telescopus-semiannulatus}
}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.