Grass Snake
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Reptilia Order: Squamata Suborder: Serpentes Family: Colubridae Genus: Natrix Species: N. natrix
Binomial name
Natrix natrix Linnaeus, 1758

The Grass Snake, sometimes called the Ringed Snake or Water Snake (Natrix natrix) is a European non-venomous snake. Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 985 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... Subclasses Anapsida Diapsida Synonyms Reptilia Laurenti, 1768 Reptiles are tetrapods and amniotes, animals whose embryos are surrounded by an amniotic membrane, and members of the class Sauropsida. ... Suborders Lacertilia- Lizards Serpentes - Snakes Amphisbaenia - Worm lizards This article is about the Squamata order of reptiles. ... Families Acrochordidae Aniliidae Anomalepididae Anomochilidae Atractaspididae Boidae Bolyeriidae Colubridae Cylindrophiidae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Leptotyphlopidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Typhlopidae Uropeltidae Viperidae Xenopeltidae Snakes are cold blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. ... Subfamilies Boodontinae Calamariinae Colubrinae Dipsadinae Homalopsinae Natricinae Pareatinae Psammophiinae Pseudoxenodontinae Pseudoxyrhophiinae Xenodermatinae Xenodontinae See text for genera. ... Binomial name Natrix natrix Linnaeus, 1758 The Grass Snake, sometimes called the Ringed Snake or Water Snake (Natrix natrix) is a European non-venomous snake. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Carl Linnaeus, Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as  , (May 23, 1707[1] – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist[2] who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature. ... World map showing the location of Europe. ... It has been suggested that Snake poison be merged into this article or section. ... blue: sea snakes, black: land snakes Superfamilies and Families Henophidia Aniliidae Anomochilidae Boidae Bolyeriidae Cylindrophiidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Uropeltidae Xenopeltidae Typhlopoidea Anomalepididae Leptotyphlopidae Typhlopidae Xenophidia Acrochordidae Atractaspididae Colubridae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Viperidae A snake is a scaly, limbless, elongate reptile from the order Squamata. ...

The Grass Snake is typically dark green or brown in colour with a characteristic yellow collar behind the head, which explains the alternative name ringed snake. The colour may also range from grey to black. The underside is lighter in colour. In Great Britain the Grass Snake is the largest reptile reaching up to 120cm total length.

They prey almost entirely on amphibians, especially the common frog, although they also occasionally eat mammals and fish. Grass Snakes are strong swimmers and are usually found close to fresh water. For other uses, see Amphibian (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Rana temporaria Linnaeus, 1758 The Common Frog, Rana temporaria also known as the European Common Frog or European Common Brown Frog is found throughout much of Europe as far east as the Urals, except for most of Iberia, southern Italy, and the southern Balkans. ...

Grass Snakes hibernate over the winter and mate soon after they emerge in the spring during April or May. The leathery skinned eggs are laid in batches of 8-40 in June to July and hatch after about 10 weeks. As eggs require a temperature of at least 21° C to hatch, rotting vegetation, including compost heaps are preferred locations. The young are about 18cm long when they hatch and are immediately independent. A handful of compost Compost is the aerobically decomposed remnants of organic materials (those with plant and animal origins). ...

Not being venomous, their only defenses are to produce a foul-smelling fluid from the anal glands and/or feigning death by becoming completely limp^[1]. Sometimes, they will also perform fake attacks, striking without actually opening their mouths. They bite in defense rarely.

This snake is found in lowland areas of England and Wales but is almost absent from Scotland and not found in Ireland, nor is any other snake. It has a wide distribution in continental Europe, from southern Scandinavia to southern Italy. It is also found in north-western Africa. British Grass Snakes belong to the subspecies N. n. helvetica, but experts differ on the number of subspecies. Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem specific to England — the United Kingdom anthem is God Save the Queen. ... This article is about the country. ... This article is about the country. ... Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centered on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe which includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. ... This article is about the zoological term. ...

Two of the subspecies are considered critically endangered: N. n. cetti (Sardinian Grass Snake) and N. n. schweizeri.

The head of a Grass Snake showing the characteristic yellow ring collar

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Natrix natrix

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 517 pixelsFull resolution (900 × 582 pixel, file size: 289 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Beschreibung: Kopf einer Ringelnatter (Natrix natrix) Fotograf: Darkone, 26. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 517 pixelsFull resolution (900 × 582 pixel, file size: 289 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Beschreibung: Kopf einer Ringelnatter (Natrix natrix) Fotograf: Darkone, 26. ... Image File history File links Commons-logo. ...

Gallery

References

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List and Red Data List), created in 1963, is the worlds most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species and can be found here. ... The World Conservation Union or International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 335th day of the year (336th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Amphibians and Reptiles of Europe
• Reptiles and Amphibians of the UK
• BBC Nature
• Natrix natrixatThe Checklist of Armenia's Amphibians and Reptiles at Tadevosyan's Herpetological Resources. Accessed 30 March 2007.