Anilios nigrescens
Silhouette: Jessica Tingle · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The blackish blind snake (Anilios nigrescens) is a species of snake in the Typhlopidae family native to south-eastern Australia. It is a small burrowing snake with small dark eyes, a forked tongue and smooth scale around its body which permits them to travel through soil. They can grow to a size of 23 inches, with the largest recorded at 32 inches. Colour is brown/purplish on top, with a light shade of pink on the belly. The tail features a pointed tip which is a harmless spur. They can be mistaken for earthworms. Blind snakes move in a side-to-side motion on the ground, but underground they slither with tunnels made by insects.
The species lives most of its life underground feeding on ants, termites and their larvae. To find their food they flick their tongue to pick up the scent of an ant or termite trail and follow it back to the nest, where they rake the ants into their mouth using their upper jaw and swallow the food whole. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Blue Mountains National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sydney | 🇦🇺 Australia |
No species of the same family or order lives in Sydney, so these are its closest relatives here: other reptiles.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blackish Blind Snake sighting in Sydney on a given day, based on 22 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 29th most-seen of the 39 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.
November and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blackish Blind Snake in Sydney on a given day, against under 5% in January to October, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blackish Blind Snake sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is seen both by day and at night.
Only Sydney, in our data
Sydney is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Blackish Blind 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 Blackish Blind Snake is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Sydney (22 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.
