Pseudechis porphyriacus
1 Red-bellied Black Snake at Coombs, ACT
Identify this sighting
| Pseudechis porphyriacus | wombey | 17 Oct 2025 | |
| Pseudechis porphyriacus | PatrickCampbell2 | 12 Oct 2025 | |
| Pseudonaja textilis | CarbonAI | 11 Oct 2025 | |
| Austrelaps ramsayi | Ct1000 | 11 Oct 2025 |
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User's notes
I'm unclear on the delineation between highlands and lowlands copperheads... Terrible phone photos unfortunately. But was definitely not a redbelly black as its scales really lacked that glossy black in person and there was no red tinges anywhere.
4 comments
17 Oct 2025
Not much to go on here but given the locality, I am inclined to agree with Patrick that it is most likely to be a Pseudechis. It would have been handy to have had a clear shot of the head and the dull colouring may be because this animal is about to shed its skin. On larger specimens the red flush is often not all that apparent.
17 Oct 2025
I mean given the location and the quality of the image I can definitely understand going with the redbelly... To me it just didn't give "redbelly" vibes and was kind if leaning to a slightly browner tone... But definitely willing to accept that the photos are inconclusive and redbelly is what makes most sense...hopefully I'll get lucky enough to find the same snake in the same kind of location again and that might confirm (or not) that it was definitely a redbelly. Thank you for your explanation! I always appreciate getting better insight into how I can provide better evidence or make more accurate judgements myself.
17 Oct 2025
The other thing to consider is if it is Austrelaps, then the only one around this region is ramsayi and in both Austrelaps the diagnostic character to confirm id is the pale anterior edges to the upper labial (lip) scales, never present on Pseudechis. The pale edges give an appearance of white lips or teeth, not to be confused with the white line on the smaller, White-lipped Snake. That's why we prefer an image of the face, have a look at the picture of one to get your head around what I mean.
Location information
- Coordinates 149.052683-35.318050
- Maps Molonglo River Reserve
- Places Coombs, ACT
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- 10 Oct 2025 04:55 AM Recorded on
- Ct1000 Recorded by
Collections
Species information
- Pseudechis porphyriacus Scientific name
- Red-bellied Black Snake Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1428.4m Recorded at altitude
Record quality
Quality score
5 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- Description
- GPS evidence of location
- Additional attributes