Emydocephalus orarius
Silhouette: SeismicShrimp · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
Emydocephalus orarius, also known as the white-crowned or white-naped sea snake, is a species of sea snake endemic to Australian waters. The specific epithet orarius (“coastal”) refers to its known habitat. The species grows up to 116 cm in length.
The species has been recorded from soft-bottomed waters off the Kimberley, Pilbara and Gascoyne coasts of Western Australia, including Barrow and Legendre Islands. The type locality is Shark Bay. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ningaloo Marine Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Western Turtle-headed Sea Snake sighting in Ningaloo Marine Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 24th most-seen of the 29 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December and January
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Western Turtle-headed Sea Snake in Ningaloo Marine Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–June and August, the lowest months. Those are among Ningaloo Marine Park's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain a month against 50 mm in June.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Western Turtle-headed Sea Snake sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Ningaloo Marine Park, in our data
Ningaloo Marine Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Western Turtle-headed Sea Snake sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Elapidae
The closest relatives of the Western Turtle-headed Sea Snake that you can see in Ningaloo Marine Park (family Elapidae, Elapid Snakes) are Olive Sea Snake (about 30%), Pilbara Death Adder (about 30%) and Mulga Snake (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Western Turtle-headed Sea Snake is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Ningaloo Marine Park (6 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.
