S’N’A Intermediate Series
Episode: 31
Mollendorff’s Rat Snake, Moellendorff’s Trinket Snake, Flower Snake or Hundred Flower Snake
(Elaphe Moellendorfii)
Ok so this is exciting. Very exciting, this represents the pinnacle of Rat Snakes for many keepers me included. Some older keepers may be wondering why this is in the intermediate series, and that’s a fair question. Many old school keeper experiences with this species are filled with disaster. Moellendorff’s have a troubled reputation for being incredibly weak and sensitive snake bound to die. This information solely deals with wild caught imported specimens. They were a regular feature on importers stock lists for very modest prices (£50-100). Because of the rarity in captivity keepers would invariably be tempted to give them a go.
This rarely ended well.
Heavy parasitic burden and chronic dehydration saw condition fall of these snakes with speed. Coupled with this, Moellendorff’s Rat Snakes are temperature sensitive too. Being too keen with temperatures would invariably expedite the loss of condition.
Keepers of the wild caught specimens had to walk a knife edge deciding when to undertake acclimatisation techniques such as worming. To act too soon would cause the snake to crash and suffer near total immune failure. Through experience with many wild caught specimens we now know that hydration is key. Hydration is not just water, it is the replacement of salts, electrolytes and amino acids lost through stress. Primary concerns with imported species is to rehydrate them as soon as humanly possible. This trumps feeding, handling or anything else. Without hydration the animal would surely perish.
Moellendorff’s Rat Snake’s ecology is that of a cave dwelling rat Snake that is accustomed to lower temperatures than the surface temperatures that the local area experiences. An arbitrary upper temperature limit of 26°c is accepted in captivity with the opportunity to move away to room temperatures as low as 18°c. With these parameters in place these snakes have similar captive requirements to the Bamboo Rat Snakes (genus Oreocryptophis) and Mandarin Rat Snakes (genus Euprepiophis) even if on a much grander scale.
Moellendorff’s Rat Snakes were first decribed by Boettger in 1886 and was named in honour of Otto Franz Von Moellendorff.
Initially is was described at Cynophis moellendorffi. This species has been through a number of taxonomic reviews hopping through several genera including Coluber, Elaphe, Amblycephalus and Orthriophis.
Moellendorff’s Rat Snake was placed in the genus Orthriophis with the stripe tailed Rat Snakes (Orthriophis taeniurus). Certainly build and tail length wise there are likenesses for such where it jars lightly is that Moellendorff’s Rat Snake is saddled from top to bottom . The taeniurus species starts patternless, then becomes saddled and then forming a strong bold stripe through the tail.
In 2017 Chen synonymised Orthriophis with Elaphe and that is where they currently reside. Although as we all know from watching these videos I produce it is highly unlikely they will stay there. Elaphe are also known as the Northern Rat Snakes and include the Japanese, Russian and Amur Rat Snakes commonly seen in the hobby amongst others.
Moellendorff’s Rat Snake occurs in the South China Plains in the interesting Karst region. The term Karst isn’t something I was familiar with. Karst regions are other worldly looking rock formations created from limestone being eroded by rainfall and running water. There are various karst regions throughout the world. This interaction between precipitation and eroding stone creates cave networks and gaping fissures which seem to be a favourite haunt of the species. They occur in Southern Guangdong, Southern Guangxi, Southern Yunnan and North Eastern Vietnam. Given their lower temperatures one could be forgiven for thing they may be a montane species like the Oreocryptophis and Euprepiophis but Mell stated their elevation ceiling was only 500m and dropped to only 50m above sea level. The type locality of the species is given as Nanning in Guangxi province.
Thumbnail courtesy of Matthew Most @ Sarpamitra
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