Dasypeltis gansi

Dasypeltis gansi, commonly known as Gans's egg-eater or Gans' egg-eating snake, is a species of non-venomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to West Africa.

Etymology

The specific name, gansi, is in honor of American herpetologist Carl Gans.

Geographic range

D. gansi is found in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, the Republic of South Sudan, Senegal, Sudan, and Togo.

Habitat

The preferred natural habitat of D. gansi is savanna, at altitudes from sea level to .

Description

Females of D. gansi may attain a total length (including tail) of about with the longest recorded specimen being long (including tail). Males are smaller, and may attain a total length of about . Dorsal coloration is almost uniformly beige.

Behavior

D. gansi is terrestrial and partly arboreal.

Diet

The diet of D. gansi consists entirely of birds' eggs. They are capable of swallowing eggs 3-4 times larger than their head, possibly the largest gape of all snake species.

Reproduction

D. gansi is oviparous.

References

Further reading

• , , (2013). "Geographical distributions: Dasypeltis gansi Trape & Mané, 2006, Gans' Egg-eater". African Herp News (60): 30–32.
• Göthel, Helmut (2015): "Die Pazifisten unter den Schlangen – Afrikanische Eierschlangen der Gattung Dasypeltis". Draco 16 (61): 6–21. (in German).
• Trape J-F, (2006). "Le genre Dasypeltis Wagler (Serpentes: Colubridae) en Afrique de l'Ouest: description de trois espèces et d'une sous-espèce nouvelles ". Bulletin de la Société Herpétologique de France 119: 27–56. (Dasypeltis gansi, new species). (in French).
• Wallach V, Williams KL, (2014). Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. xxviii + 1,209 pp. . (Dasypeltis gansi, p. 210).