Ahaetulla nasuta
Silhouette: Alex Slavenko · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
Ahaetulla nasuta, also known as Sri Lankan green vine snake, long-nosed whip snake, and long-nosed tree snake, is a venomous, slender green tree snake endemic to Sri Lanka. It was previously known as the common green vine snake and was widely distributed across India and South East Asia, until a 2020 study split them into several different species, restricting Ahaetulla nasuta just to the Sri Lankan population.
The genus name Ahaetulla comes from the Sri Lankan Sinhalese words ahaetulla/ahata gulla/as gulla, meaning "eye plucker" or "eye picker", because of the belief that they pluck out the eyes of humans, as first reported by the Portuguese traveler João Ribeiro in 1685. The species name nasuta is Latin for "of the nose", in reference to its elongated snout.
The Sinhala name "Aheatulla" or "eye-plucker" forms the taxonic genus name. In Tamil, it is known as pachai paambu. In Kannada, it is known as Hasiru Haavu. Sinhala: ඇහැටුල්ලා (Pronounced: Aheatulla) Tamil: பச்சை பாம்பு Kannada: ಹಸಿರು ಹಾವು
Marathi: हरणटोळ (Pronounced: Harantol) West Bengal: লাউডগা (Pronounced: Laudoga) In Western internet culture, the vine snake has occasionally been humorously... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 3 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 4 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Terra Natura Benidorm | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 3 | Snake Farm of Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Green Vine Snake sighting in Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 21st most-seen of the 23 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Green Vine Snake in Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] on a given day, against under 5% in February, April–June and September–December, the lowest months. That is one of Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte]'s driest months, with about 75 mm of rain against 310 mm in November.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Green Vine Snake sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte], in our data
Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Green Vine Snake sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Colubridae
The closest relatives of the Green Vine Snake that you can see in Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] (family Colubridae, Colubrid Snakes) are Dhaman (about 30%), Boulenger's Keelback (about 20%) and Russell's Wolf Snake (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Green Vine Snake is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] (7 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
