A long, slim, fast-moving Australian colubrid renowned for chasing prey over open ground at impressive speed.
Description
The yellow-faced whip snake is a slim, long-tailed elapid usually under 1.3 m, with a pale brown to grey body and a distinctive yellow ring around the eye bordered by a black eye-line. The body is so slender that adults look like a long rope rather than a typical snake.
Behavior
A fast diurnal hunter, the whip snake chases small skinks across open ground and into rock crevices, biting and holding rather than constricting. The venom is mild and only briefly painful in humans, but the snake’s speed and willingness to bite when grabbed make handling risky.
Range
Distributed across most of mainland Australia outside the cool extreme southeast. The genus Demansia contains several closely related whip snake species across Australia and southern New Guinea.