Aesculapian snake

Protection of the Aesculapian snake

The Aesculapian snake is a protected species in France. It is totally forbidden to capture, injure or even kill it. More information on the Aesculapian snake can be found on the National Inventory of Natural Heritage website.

This very young Aesculapian snake was caught by the Mas de la Fontenette in the Gorges de l’Ardèche. The Mas de la Fontenette is a magnificent gite for 6 people with a heated swimming pool, rated 4 stars by Gite de France.

This snake measures around 110 cm to 160 cm when fully grown (rarely 200 cm). Its body is very slender and slender, with a thin, fairly elongated head, a rounded snout and a more or less pronounced neck. Its eyes are medium-sized with round pupils and a yellowish-brown or greyish iris, sometimes a little orange.

Adults are generally fairly uniformly brown, yellowish-beige to olive, more or less dark or light. A few grey-black individuals can be found in the Balkans. The coat is often shiny with a bronze appearance. The head and sometimes the front of the body are a deeper shade of yellow. The back is adorned with very fine flecks of pure white in small longitudinal dashes along the edges of the scales. These tend to disappear in older individuals. On either side of the neck, broad, light yellow crescents are slightly curved towards the temporal bones. They also fade with age. The dorsal parts may be brown, greyish, yellowish, ochre or greenish. In some individuals, light and dark longitudinal stripes with very little contrast appear on the back. The flanks and belly are pale yellow, plain or slightly speckled with brown at the dorso-ventral separation. Melanism is rare, albinism somewhat less so.

Distribution of the Aesculapian snake

It is found in most regions of mainland France, except for the northernmost parts and Corsica. It reaches as far north as around the latitude of Paris and Normandy. It can be found as far south as the department of Calvados. However, its distribution is discontinuous in France, with numerous large gaps throughout the country.

It feeds mainly on small mammals (voles, field mice, rats, mice, etc.), which it suffocates by constriction. Secondly, it climbs trees and shrubs to eat chicks and eggs in nests or to hunt birds on the prowl. The young eat mainly lizards and young rodents.

Aesculapian snake lifestyle and behaviour

It is a diurnal snake. In summer, it usually bathes in the sun in the morning, then retreats to the shade and searches for prey in the afternoon. In hot weather it may be active in the evening or in the rain. This snake overwinters during the off-season, lasting between 4 and 6 months depending on the local climate.

It lives mainly on the ground, but is an excellent climber and can be found posted in shrubs and trees up to 15 m high. Thanks to its carinated ventral scales, it can climb vertical tree trunks several metres if the bark is rough.

The Aesculapian snake is not venomous and is completely harmless to humans. It also has a fairly peaceful temperament. It is not as fast and reactive as the Green and Yellow Ratsnake, for example, and also appears less fearful. When danger approaches, it relies more on its camouflage provided by its colouring and does not always try to flee. Instead, it tries to hide discreetly, or stays put until the danger has passed. It is therefore fairly easy to observe at close quarters once it has been detected, but it usually goes unnoticed. If it is caught, it will sometimes let go without resisting too much if it is not rushed. But in some cases it may hiss, open its mouth, bite hard several times and wrap itself around the arm, squeezing a little, before quickly calming down. Its bite is generally not very painful, although its very small teeth can cause superficial bleeding. It may also defecate, emitting a foul odour as it empties its cloacal glands.