Reptilia · Squamata
Thelotornis capensisSmith, 1849
Twig Snake
Photograph by Wynand Uys, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 199 cm nose to tail.
Also called Savanna Vine Snake, Southern Twig Snake, Vine Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Thelotornis
- Grows to
- 1985mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Arboreal
Longer than 95% 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
32 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
- Multi
- Pattern on the back
- Banded, blotched
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1062mm3 ft 6 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1985mm6 ft 6 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 280mm11 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 237.3g8.4 oz
1400 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Barends and Maritz 2021 (SVL: 470-892, mean 648.9 ± 132.12, n = 10; female SVL: mean 595.75 ± 43.56, range 560-650, n = 4) , 1200-1700 but claims to have caught a 1985 mm "monster with amazing strength" (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 1062 in males, 1050 mm in females; hatchlings 230-331 mm TL), adults average 0.7-1.2 m, max 1.47 m in hte nominate subspecies, 1.7 m in T. c. oatesii, hatchlings 22-37 cm, 25-35 cm in oatesii), Trape 2023 (70-145 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
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1830m
- Range size
- 4,910,789km²
mainly lizards and frogs, also snakes, bats and birds (Pietersen et al. 2021), amphibians and reptiles (van Huyssteen 2023), mainly lizards (Trape 2023)
Sit (Glaudas et al. 2019, Wilkey and Terrell 2017), mixed (van Huyssteen 2023)
O'Shea 2018, Pietersen et al. 2021, van Huyssteen 2023, Trape 2023
(O'Shea 2018, van Huyssteen 2023, Trape 2023), predominantly arboreal (Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022)
coastal thicket, forest fringes and savanna (Bates et al. 2014), 0-1830 (O'Shea 2018), 1443 (Conradie et al. 2021)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 7.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4–18eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
Feldman et al. 2015
8-10 (O'Shea 2011), 4-10 or 4-18 (Chippaux and Jackson 2019), 4-18 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Bates et al. 2014, O'Shea 2018, Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Thelotornis capensis capensis (SMITH 1849) Thelotornis capensis oatesi (GÜNTHER 1881)
- Described by
- Smith
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1849
- Type locality
- South Africa
Keeping one
4 ft 11 in × 3 ft 3 in × 9 ft 9 in(149 × 99 × 298 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 0.75 × 0.5 × 1.5.
Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.
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 6 ft 6 in (1985 mm), at 0.75 × 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 Twig 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.
25kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 237 g, the heaviest recorded for Twig 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
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). Thelotornis capensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/thelotornis-capensis
@misc{thelotornis_capensis_2026,
title = {Thelotornis capensis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/thelotornis-capensis}
}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.