Chironius exoletus
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Madre Selva field station, Depto Loreto, Peru. January 12, 2011.
These whipsnakes can grow to an impressive length – I’ve seen a few in the 7-8 foot range. This first exoletus was around 6 feet in length. On occasion I see them sleeping at night in a loose, circular coil, on vertical branches high off the ground. This snake is very similar to the Olive Sipo (Chironius fuscus); they can be told apart by the number of scale rows at mid-body (12 for exoletus, 10 for fuscus). Additionally, in Chironius fuscus the lower portion of supraIabials are light colored, while C. exoletus usually features unicolored supralabials.
My Flickr album for this species is here.
Peru 2013 Flickr album is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
