Blind Snake

Introduction

There are 46 species of blind snakes belonging to the genus Anilios (previously Ramphotyphlops) in Australia. The most commonly encountered species in the eastern states is Anilios nigrescens.

Identification

Blind snakes are often mistaken for earthworms. They are small worm-like burrowing snake, pink or grey in colour and have a forked tongue and smooth scales around their bodies (no broad belly scales) that allow them to travel through soil.

Their eyes are reduced to small dark spots under the scales of the head and their mouth is well behind and below the tip of the snout; the body is uniform in thickness along its length with a very short tail ending in a conical spine.

Habitat

Blind Snakes live in south-eastern Australia. They are found wherever ants and termites (their main food supply) are plentiful.

Blind Snakes move in a side-to-side swimming motion when above the ground. Below the ground they use tunnels made by insects.

Feeding and diet

To find their food Blind Snakes flick their tongue to taste and smell the trail of ants and termites. They follow the ants' trails to the nest. They rake ants and termites into their mouth with their top jaw and swallow their food whole. They also eat the eggs and larvae of ants and termites.

Owls, feral cats, foxes and some snakes, especially the Bandy Bandy, eat Blind Snakes.

View microCT scans of a Blackish Blind Snake (Anilios nigrescens) from the Australian Museum Herpetology Collection (specimen AM R.185891). Learn more about microCT scanning and how it is used by the Australian Museum Research Institute.

Breeding behaviours

Blind Snakes lay one to twenty round eggs each breeding season with the young looking after themselves.

Danger to humans

These snakes are non-venomous and harmless. They cannot bite and have limited defensive capabilities. They are able to produce a pungent odour from the anal glands, vomit up their last meal or prod with the tail spine to produce an unpleasant prickling sensation.