📸 PhotoPhoto: Yasunori Koide · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Tiger Keelback
Rhabdophis tigrinus (Tiger Keelback · ヤマカガシ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 When its neck is pressed, nuchal gland fluid can squirt over 1 m and cause keratoconjunctivitis if it enters the eyes. In Japan, 19 such ophthalmic cases have been reported.
- 💡 In month 10 of 2022, a leucistic Tiger Keelback was recorded in bushes by a pond on Jeungdo in Sinan, Jeollanam-do. Measuring 49 cm in total length, it was basking by the pond.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Tiger Keelback is a common snake living in the Russian Primorye, China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Taiwan, with poison-holding glands on the back of its neck.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its body is olive green with black and orange crossbands from neck to trunk. In the skin on the back of the neck are paired sac-like nuchal glands, and in the upper jaw is Duvernoy's gland (venom gland).
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It mainly eats frogs and also eats toads; when it eats toads, it sequesters their toxin compounds (bufadienolides) in its nuchal glands for defense. Snakes on toad-free islands lacked these toxins in the wild and accumulated them when fed toads. It lays eggs.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
Among the four venomous snakes living in Korea, it is the only member of the family Colubridae, while the rest belong to Viperidae. In month 10 of 2022, a white leucistic Tiger Keelback was recorded for the first time on Jeungdo in Sinan, Jeollanam-do.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2021) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/191942/2018809
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 4RW5G
- • iucnredlist.org — 2018809
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000059493 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000059493
- • wikidata.org — Q1308639
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Rhabdophis tigrinus IMG 6559.retouch.JPG
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC10883253
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC9547041
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC1892995
- • reptile-database.reptarium.cz — species
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC9415592
- • species.nibr.go.kr — general-search
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — V. Deepak · CC BY 3.0 (Congeneric silhouette — Rhabdophis plumbicolor)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.