Australian Colubrids, Mud Snakes, Worm (Blind) Snakes, File Snakes and Sea Snakes
John Fowler & Rachel Barnes

This section is covers Australian Colubrids, Mud Snakes, Worm (Blind) Snakes, File Snakes and Sea Snakes found in Australia.

Click on a photo below for species listings

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Colubrids

Of the Australian Colubrid snakes,

only the Brown Tree Snake and Wolf Snake have weak venom and they are generally considered harmless.

The four most commonly encountered colubrids seen in Australia are listed here:-

COMMON NAME	SCIENTIFIC NAME	Distribution	PHOTO
Brown Tree Snake or Night Tiger Snake	Boiga irregularis (= Boiga fusca or fuscus)	NSW, NT, Qld, WA
Northern Tree Snake or Coconut Tree Snake	Dendrelaphis calligaster	Australia (Queensland), Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia
Common or Green (or Golden) Tree Snake	Dendrelaphis punctulatus (was punctulata)	NSW, NT, Qld, WA
*Australian Slaty-grey Snake	Stegonotus australis (split from S. cucullatus)	NT, Qld
Keelback or Freshwater Snake	Tropidonophis mairii	NSW, NT, Qld, WA

To see a list of all Australian Colubrids - click on the picture below

SPECIES LISTS

The Brown Tree Snake on Guam (PDF)
National Museum of
Natural History

 

Colubrid Snakes
AROD

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MUD SNAKES

Mud Snakes are a group of rear fanged aquatic snakes that used to be considered as colubrid snakes. Australian Mud Snakes and Colubrids are not considered dangerous.

SPECIES LISTS

 

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SEA SNAKES

SPECIES LIST

Sea Snakes are now considered to be a Sub-family of the Elapid snakes.

They have extremely strong venom, however bites are extremely rare.

Most species have no inclination to bite humans, however a few species do bite and due to the potency of their venoms, extreme care should be taken.

If bitten the treatment should be the same as for an elapid Snake
(All dangerous Australian land snakes are Elapids)
VENOM AND SNAKEBITE (Australia) 
John Fowler

Sea Snakes
Diving Medicine Online

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BLIND SNAKES
( Worm Snakes )
Worm Snakes are totally harmless, they have a small spine on their tail but have no venom.

SPECIES LIST

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FILE SNAKES

File Snakes are not venomous, they they are totally aquatic usually living in the sea or brackish water

SPECIES LIST