Aurora House Snake

A beautifully-marked slow-moving snake that favours damp localities in grasslands, lowland forest and fynbos where it hunts for nestling rodents, lizards and frogs at night. Adults average 60 cm but may exceed 90 cm.

Full Name: Aurora House Snake (Lamprophis aurora)

Other Names: Auroraslang

Classification: HARMLESS

Map indicating the distribution of the Aurora House Snake in Southern Africa.

A beautifully-marked slow-moving snake that favours damp localities in grasslands, lowland forest and fynbos where it hunts for nestling rodents, lizards and frogs at night. Adults average 60 cm but may exceed 90 cm.

It varies in colour from shiny olive green to dull dark green above with a bright yellow to orange vertebral stripe from the top of the head to the tip of the tail.

It is a harmless constrictor that seldom attempts to bite. This snake is endemic to South Africa and Lesotho and occurs from the Cape Peninsula through the Western and Eastern Cape into parts of the Northern Cape, the Free State, much of KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng and eastern North West province.

African Snakebite Institute