Mexican Vine Snake

(Oxybelis aeneus)

Color Photographs: Jeff Servoss, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Mexican Vine Snake (Oxybelis aeneus)

Identification: Snake 36 to 60 inches in length. A long, thin snake. Head elongate, diamond-shaped. Underside of head yellow and with a black line running through the eye. Belly yellow to white. Back and sides brown to gray. Scales smooth and anal plate divided.

Range (see map below left): A tropical species ranging from Brazil to Mexico, entering our area only in extreme southern Arizona.

Habitat: The Mexican Vine Snake is found in a wide variety of habitats ranging from rainforest to dry forest in Latin America. In Arizona the species is typically found in gullies and canyons, or on brush filled hillsides.

Food: Small lizards.

Behavior: Although this snake is at home on the ground, it spends a lot of its time deftly moving through the branches of trees and shrubs. This species has rear, grooved fangs and uses a mild poison to immobilize its prey.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of 3 to 5 eggs laid during the late spring or early summer.

Mexican Vine Snake (Oxybelis aeneus)

The slender body and the elongate, diamond-shaped head are distinctive. The Mexican Vine Snake is unlikely to be confused with any other North American Snake

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