RED TAILED RACER (Gonyosoma oxycephalum)

The Red-tailed Green Ratsnake (Gonyosoma oxycephalum) is a species of snake found in Southeast Asia. It is a thin snake with powerful and rough scales on its belly, ideal for climbing and moving in trees. It has smaller, smooth scales on its back.

As its name indicates, the snake has a green body with a red tail (usually brownish), and it also has a dark line horizontally across its eye. On the sides of its black tongue there may be a blue colour.

The red-tailed green ratsnake lives and spends its life in the trees and in cavities in trees. It seldom descends to the ground. It feeds almost exclusively on birds, but in captivity it can be trained to feed on small mammals . The female can reach a length of up to 2.4 m (almost 8 feet), while the male is generally a little bit smaller. Its average life span is 15 years. It reaches sexually maturity at the age of 4 years, and its eggs have a hatching time from 13 to 16 weeks. The female lays on average between 3 and 8 eggs usually between September and January and the hatchlings are about 45 cm (18 inches) long.

When the snake is stressed, it may inflate a bag of air in its neck, making it appear larger in size.

In captivity, it has quite the 'attitude' and may strike at or bite an unwary handler.

The red tailed racer is a medium-bodied arboreal rat snake that occupies lowland to mid-level rainforest. They are common and widely-distributed across the Peninsular. They are usually completely green except for the yellowish labials and lower cheeks. A faint stripe runs from the snout through the eye and fades off towards the neck. The tongue is blue and the tail tip is a dark rusty brown.

Red-tailed rat snakes are aggressive and flare up their throats and bodies when under duress. They hunt birds and rodents in the wild, using constriction as a killing method. Gonyosoma oxcephalum can be differentiated from Elaphe prasina by their much larger size, stripe through the eye and rusty brown tail; features that the green tree racer lacks. in Southeast Asia, this species occurs in Malaysia, Borneo, Thailand and Indonesia, some with different colour forms.

Habitat                   

Found in the sandy soil of sparse woodlands
Behavior

The Gray Rat Snake is larger than most Rat Snakes. They are usually docile, although they can become aggressive when threatened or nervous. Found primarily in the Midwestern United States, the Gray Rat Snake can usually be found in the sandy soil of sparse woodlands.They are mostly arboreal animals, meaning they spend a lot of time in trees. They can often be found hunting or basking on rocks and tree limbs. Gray Rat Snakes do not require hibernation unless they are to be bred. They are quite common in captivity. In the wild, young Gray Rat Snakes are eaten by raptors and carnivorous mammals. The adults grow to a significant length, so they are rarely harmed by anything but humans.