Ahaetulla fasciolata
Silhouette: Alex Slavenko · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The speckle-headed whipsnake (Ahaetulla fasciolata) is a species of colubrid vine snake found in Southeast Asia. It has a thin, elongated body, an extremely long tail and a sharply triangular-shaped head. Adults can measure up to 0.8 m. The upper body is usually brownish-grey, but can vary greatly to yellows, oranges, greens and browns, and may have ill-defined transverse bars on the neck and anterior part of the body, or may be solid in color. The belly is whitish with a black line near the ends of the ventral scales. The head is usually punctuated with dark spots. A thin dark line across the eye separates the darker head from the lighter cheeks. The upper lips and underside of the head are whitish with dark spots.
The scales pattern observed in specimens from Thailand were: ventral 227–238, subcaudal (187–192) + 1 paired, dorsal scales in 15 rows, 9 supralabial, with the 4th to 5th touching the eye, 1 preocular, 2 postocular. The anal scales are entire in this species.
It belongs to the genus Ahaetulla, one of five genera within the subfamily Ahaetuliinae. The relationships of Ahaetulla fasciolata to some other Ahaetulla species, and to the other genera... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kinabalu Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Speckle-headed Whipsnake sighting in Kinabalu Park on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 63rd most-seen of the 69 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.
December to March
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Speckle-headed Whipsnake in Kinabalu Park on a given day, against under 5% in April to November, the lowest months.
Between 10 pm and 1 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Speckle-headed Whipsnake sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is seen both by day and at night.
Only Kinabalu Park, in our data
Kinabalu Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Speckle-headed Whipsnake sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Colubridae
The closest relatives of the Speckle-headed Whipsnake that you can see in Kinabalu Park (family Colubridae, Colubrid Snakes) are Schmidt's Reed Snake (about 40%), Lined Reed Snake (about 30%) and Sarawak Keelback (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Speckle-headed Whipsnake is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Kinabalu Park (5 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
