Bandy Bandy Snake at Kleinton on Australia Day

It's not their fault they don't have feathers! Doesn't make them any less interesting. And just like the birds, it's good to know what species are about locally at any given time.

There's expertise within the club and beyond on most aspects of our local fauna. Let's tap into it.
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Brendon & Judi Gray
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Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:08 pm
Location: Kleinton, Queensland.
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Bandy Bandy Snake at Kleinton on Australia Day

Post by Brendon & Judi Gray »

Last Night I saw a small Bandy Bandy Snake at our Patch in the Kleinton Area on the Downs. This is our second sighting ever of a Bandy Bandy Here, the last sighting being almost three years ago. Very exciting find, and a super end to a great Australia Day. This snake is easily my favourite as it is just so attractive. A couple of photos are on our property blog. .://jarowairourpatch.blogspot.com/20 ... ke-on.html

So far this year we have had One Koala Sighting and also have seen two Squirrel Gliders, Barn Owl, Channel-billed Cuckoo's, Indian Koel and Red-backed Fairy Wrens.[/url]
Rod Hobson
Posts: 509
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:03 am

The Bandy Bandy

Post by Rod Hobson »

Judy and Brendon,

I'm not sure who of you was the author on the Bandy Bandy posting but I must agree that the Bandy Bandy (Vermicella annulata) is a lovely little Australian snake. I have just returned from conducting a fauna survey at the Richard Underwood Nature Reserve near St. George, which is the site set up for the establishment of a second population of the critically endangered Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasorhinus krefftii). During the course of this survey we caught a host of reptiles, mainly in pit-fall buckets but the one that elicited most of the "oohs"and "aahs" from my fellow rangers was a Bandy Bandy. And this is generally the reaction whenever I show people this beautiful little snake. Unfortunately this is quite contrary to the usual response of most people to snakes generally.

During this survey we also caught four blindsnakes of a single species Ramphotyphlops wiedii. Blindsnakes, of which there are 41 native and * a single introduced species in Australia comprise, almost exclusively, the diet of bandy bandys.

Like other small snakes generally the Bandy Bandy is becoming increasingly rare around Toowoomba so sightings such as yours are always good news. This snake used to be quite common in the Lockyer Valley where it was often encountered in termite mounds destroyed during land clearing operations. Blindsnakes eat termites, their larva and eggs and are often found in active termitarium. Consequently, Bandy Bandys often enter these mounds hunting blindsnakes. Both blindsnakes and the Bandy Bandy are ideally adapted for hunting in the convoluted and dark galleries of the termites. Both these snake genera have small eyes (redundant in Ramphotyphlops) that bespeak a subterranean existence, a rounded and spade-like head for pushing through soil and glossy, glass-like and tightly overlapping scales for ease of passage through the earth.

Both the bandy bandys, of which we have five species confined to Australia, and the blindsnakes are essentially underground dwellers. They are rarely seen on the surface except after rain and usually only at night.

The late Toowoomba naturalist Pat Walker was concerned about the number of Bandy Bandy fatalities that occured during the destruction of termite mounds as long ago as the 1950's. He also believed that the historical overharvesting of these termite mounds for the surfacing of 'ant-bed' tennis courts helped put pay to the existence of the Paradise Parrot in the Murphys Creek area. This bird, also known as the Anthill Parrot, nested exclusively in termite mounds. Pat was the only person whom I knew personally had actually seen a live Paradise Parrot.

* there are only three introduced reptiles that have established themselves in Australia.They are the Flowerpot Snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus), the Asian House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) and the Red-eared Slider Turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans).

Regards,
Rod Hobson
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