Simoselaps bertholdi
Silhouette: Beth Reinke · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Simoselaps bertholdi, also known commonly as Jan's banded snake or the southern desert banded snake, is a species of burrowing mildly venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is endemic to Australia. The specific epithet bertholdi honours German physician and naturalist Arnold Adolph Berthold.
S. bertholdi grows to an average total length (including tail) of 30 cm (12 in). S. bertholdi is oviparous, with an average clutch size of four. The geographic range of S. bertholdi covers a broad swathe of arid inland Australia from central and western South Australia and the south-west of the Northern Territory, westwards across Western Australia to the western coast of the continent.
Boulenger GA (1896). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ).... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I–XXV. (Rhynchelaps bertholdi, pp. 362–363).
Cogger HG (2014). Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, Seventh... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Perth | 🇦🇺 Australia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Desert Banded Snake sighting in Perth on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 19th most-seen of the 23 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April, August, October and December–January
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Desert Banded Snake in Perth on a given day, against under 5% in February–March, May–July, September and November, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Desert Banded Snake sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is seen both by day and at night.
Only Perth, in our data
Perth is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Desert Banded Snake sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Elapidae
The closest relatives of the Desert Banded Snake that you can see in Perth (family Elapidae, Elapid Snakes) are Eastern Tiger Snake (about 10%) and Dugite (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Desert Banded Snake is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Perth (9 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.
