Wildlifeof Sri Lanka
Boulenger's Bronzeback
Colubrid Snakes
Photo: Ruchira Somaweera, H.K. Dushantha Kandambi, Imesh Nuwan Bandara and Others · Public Domain
Dendrelaphis bifrenalis
Basic stats
Diet
Frogs, geckos, skinks and agamid lizards
Habitat
Trees, shrubs and bushes in the wet and intermediate zones, lowlands to mid hills; also reported in the northern dry zone
Range
Eastern Ghats of southern India and Sri Lanka
Boulenger's bronzeback, also called the Travancore bronze-brown snake, is a colubrid native to the Eastern Ghats of southern India and to Sri Lanka, first described by George Albert Boulenger in 1890. In Sri Lanka the wet-zone populations once assigned to it are now treated as Wickramasinghes' bronzeback. The body is cylindrical, narrow and slender, the head pear-shaped and flattened, the tail prehensile and a third of the body length, and the back is copper-coloured (Wikipedia, general species account).
It is oviparous, diurnal and arboreal, found in trees, shrubs and bushes in the wet and intermediate zones from lowlands to mid hills, with records from the northern dry zone (Mullaitivu, Vavuniya and Trincomalee). It feeds on frogs, geckos, skinks and agamid lizards and sometimes descends to the ground. Nationally Near Threatened (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).
Quick answers
- What does the Boulenger's Bronzeback eat?
- Frogs, geckos, skinks and agamid lizards
- What habitat does the Boulenger's Bronzeback live in?
- Trees, shrubs and bushes in the wet and intermediate zones, lowlands to mid hills; also reported in the northern dry zone
- Where is the Boulenger's Bronzeback found?
- Eastern Ghats of southern India and Sri Lanka