Gerarda prevostiana
Silhouette: SeismicShrimp · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Gerarda prevostiana, commonly known as the cat-eyed water snake, Gerard's water snake, and the glossy marsh snake, is a species of snake in the family Homalopsidae. The species is endemic to Asia. It is the only species in the genus Gerarda.
The generic name, Gerarda, is in honor of someone named "Gerard". Unfortunately, John Edward Gray, who named the genus in 1849, did not specify whom he was honoring. Two possibilities are Adam Gerard or Rev. Gerard R. Smith, both of whom sent specimens of reptiles to Gray at the British Museum.
The specific name, prevostiana, is in honor of French naturalist and illustrator Florent Prévost. G. prevostiana feeds almost exclusively on crabs, which it tears into bite-sized pieces by pulling them through its coils, in contrast to most other snakes which swallow their prey whole. G. prevostiana has the following scalation. The frontal is a little longer than broad, shorter than its distance from the end of the snout, or than the parietals. The loreal is slightly longer than deep, a little smaller than the nasal. There is one preocular, and there are two postoculars. The temporals are arranged 1+2. There are... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Cat-eyed Fishing Snake sighting in Singapore on a given day, based on 21 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 49th most-seen of the 64 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Cat-eyed Fishing Snake in Singapore on a given day, against under 5% in January–April and June–November, the lowest months.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cat-eyed Fishing Snake sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Only Singapore, in our data
Singapore is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Cat-eyed Fishing Snake sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cat-eyed Fishing Snake is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Singapore (21 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.
