Painted bronzeback

It is slim, usually under 1 m long, with a head slightly wider than its neck and large eyes. The back is bronze to coppery brown, with a row of enlarged scales running down the middle. A cream or pale yellow stripe runs along each lower side, edged with black. A bold black stripe runs from the snout through the eye and down the side of the neck.

When it feels threatened, or while swallowing large prey, it puffs up its body. This spreads the scales apart and shows bright turquoise-blue skin in between.

It is native and very common. It lives in hedges, shrubs and low trees in parks, gardens, condo grounds, scrub and forest edges, and is rarely found deep in dense forest. Researchers have counted 66 along a single survey route. They consider it possibly Singapore's most common and abundant snake.

An illustration published in London in the 1830s, drawn from a Singapore specimen, is thought to be the earliest record of this snake here. A 1923 account already called it very common. Beyond Singapore, it ranges from Myanmar, Thailand and Indochina through Peninsular Malaysia to Sumatra, Java and Borneo. Snakes in the Philippines and Sulawesi once counted as this species are now treated as a separate one.

It hunts frogs and lizards, spotting them with its large eyes and chasing them down. Tree frogs, geckos and skinks are typical prey. In 2013, a painted bronzeback about 1 m long was photographed in the Singapore Zoo grounds gripping an adult four-lined tree frog by the back of its neck. In 2009, another at the zoo was found resting beside a large tadpole it had apparently attacked and then abandoned.

It is fully active by day and climbs very well, moving fast through branches and across the tops of hedges. It is nervous and usually darts away the moment it is disturbed. At night it sleeps stretched out on thin branches a few metres above the ground. It often basks in the morning sun.

It lays eggs. A hatchling found at the Singapore Zoo in 2009, still with its umbilical scar, was only about 20 cm long. Adults reach about 1 m, and a few grow to about 1.25 m.

No. It has no venom. Like any wild animal it may bite if grabbed or cornered, but it would much rather flee. It sits at GIVE SPACE on the danger scale.