Reptilia · Squamata
Zamenis hohenackeriStrauch, 1873
Transcaucasian Rat Snake
Photograph by Wouter Beukema, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating snake from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 107 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Zamenis
- Grows to
- 1070mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 20years
Longer than 74% 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
- 2008
- Population trend
- Decreasing
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 20years
estimated up to 20 in captiivity (Albarwari 2021)
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 950mm3 ft 1 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1070mm3 ft 6 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 181.8g6.4 oz
760 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), max total length 880 mm (Kamali 2020), Bar et al. 2021 (460-840 mm, a 760 mm total length male weighed 85 g), max 95 cm SVL (Dunayev and Orlova 2023)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Temperate Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 50–3000m
- Range size
- 350,583km²
lizards, birds, and rodents (Kamali 2020), mostly lizards and rodents (Bar et al. 2021), rodents, bird eggs and chicks, lesss so lizards, juveniles eat insects (Dunayev and Orlova 2023), adults eat mostly small mammals, juveniles also lizards and insects (Albarwari 2021)
Feldman 2015, Kamali 2020, Bar et al. 2021, Dunayev and Orlova 2023
Arboreal&Terrestrial (Feldman 2015, Bar et al. 2021)
1000-2500 (Kamali 2020), 1100-2200 (Bar et al. 2021), max 2500 (Dunayev and Orlova 2023), approaching sea level to 3000 (Albarwari 2021)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–8eggs
- Mean clutch
- 4.5eggs
- First breeds at
- 30–36months
Feldman et al. 2015
mean=4.5 (Feldman 2015), 3-7, mean 4-5 (Bar et al. 2021), max 7 (Dunayev and Orlova 2023), up to 8 (Khashab 2022), 2-8 (Albarwari 2021)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Zamenis hohenackeri hohenackeri (STRAUCH 1873) Zamenis hohenackeri lyciensis HOFMANN, MEBERT, SCHULZ, HELFENBERGER, GÖÇMEN & BÖHME 2018 Zamenis hohenackeri tauricus (WERNER 1898)
- Described by
- Strauch
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1873
- Type locality
- Azerbaijan
Keeping one
3 ft 6 in × 21 in × 5 ft 3 in(107 × 54 × 161 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 6 in (1070 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 Transcaucasian Rat 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.
20kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 182 g, the heaviest recorded for Transcaucasian Rat 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
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — 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 it hunts
- — 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
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — 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). Zamenis hohenackeri. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/zamenis-hohenackeri
@misc{zamenis_hohenackeri_2026,
title = {Zamenis hohenackeri},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/zamenis-hohenackeri}
}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.