Understanding Snakes in Urban Australia
Understanding Snakes in Urban Australia
Biology, Behaviour, Feeding and Why Snakes Appear Around Homes
Snakes are among the most specialised and efficient reptiles in Australia, perfectly adapted to life in a wide range of environments — including suburban and urban areas. To the untrained eye, snakes can seem unpredictable or aggressive, but their biology and behaviour are highly structured, finely tuned, and focused on survival rather than confrontation.
Understanding how snakes are built, how they move, feed, sense their environment and reproduce helps explain why they sometimes appear in backyards, sheds, gardens and buildings — and why professional reptile removal is often the safest outcome for both people and the animal.
Snake Anatomy: Built for Swallowing and Survival
One of the most obvious challenges a snake faces is swallowing large prey into a narrow, elongated body. Snakes overcome this through an exceptionally flexible skull made up of loosely connected bones, allowing them to consume prey far larger than their head.
The stomach of a snake can hold up to 40% of its body weight, and digestion is extremely efficient. Stomach acidity can drop to pH 1.5, comparable to lemon juice or vinegar, allowing rapid breakdown of flesh and even decalcification of bones. In venomous snakes, venom itself contains digestive enzymes that begin breaking down prey from the inside.
Most Australian snakes have one functional lung, usually the right, with the left lung reduced or absent to make room for internal organs. Some species, such as sea snakes, have an elongated lung, while pythons retain a larger left lung. Snakes also lack a diaphragm, allowing internal organs — including the heart — to shift position when large prey is swallowed.
A key adaptation is the glottis, a muscular tube at the floor of the mouth that can be extended forward, allowing a snake to continue breathing while consuming prey.
Skeleton and Movement
Snakes have an extremely specialised skeleton. They lack a sternum, meaning the ribs are not joined at the chest, allowing the body to expand during feeding. Some species have over 500 vertebrae, each capable of movement in multiple directions, giving snakes extraordinary flexibility.
Unlike many lizards, Australian snakes cannot voluntarily shed their tails. Missing tail tips are usually the result of injury and do not regenerate.
How Snakes Move Through Urban Environments
Leglessness is not a disadvantage — it is an advantage. Snakes move primarily using serpentine locomotion, pushing against surfaces such as soil, vegetation, debris, walls or garden edging. Other forms of movement include sidewinding, rectilinear motion (used by heavier-bodied snakes), and concertina movement in confined spaces.
Snakes can climb trees, fences, walls and structures by gripping surfaces with their ventral scales. Some species can even move short distances in straight lines when space is restricted.
Their belly scales are highly specialised and vary in width depending on species, playing a crucial role in traction and movement.
Feeding and Drinking: What Australian Snakes Eat
All snakes are carnivorous. None are known to habitually eat plant matter.
Australian snakes feed on a wide range of prey, including mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, fish, eggs and invertebrates. Food is swallowed whole — snakes do not chew. Their teeth are sharp, recurved and designed to grip prey and draw it into the throat.
Some species specialise:
Blind snakes feed exclusively on ants, termites and their eggs
File snakes eat fish
Water snakes feed on fish, frogs and crustaceans
Pythons consume large prey and kill by constriction
Elapid snakes (Australia’s medically significant venomous snakes) feed on vertebrates and subdue prey with venom
Snakes may eat many small prey items in one feeding or consume a single large animal. After feeding, digestion can take days, with internal organs temporarily enlarging to meet oxygen and metabolic demand. Some snakes can tolerate long periods without food and may shut down much of their metabolism between meals.
How Snakes Capture and Subdue Prey
Snakes use three primary feeding strategies:
Biting and swallowing
Constriction
Envenomation
Constriction does not crush prey but prevents breathing, leading to asphyxiation or cardiac arrest. Venomous snakes inject venom through hollow fangs connected to venom glands behind the eyes. Fang size and structure vary between species, with elapids generally having shorter, more erect fangs.
Some species, including Mulga Snakes, are known to eat other snakes (ophiophagy), including venomous species.
Reproduction and Growth
Snakes reproduce either by laying eggs or giving birth to live young. In cooler regions, species tend to be live-bearers, while egg-laying is more common in warmer climates.
Female snakes can store sperm for months or even years, allowing delayed fertilisation. Growth is continuous throughout life, slowing with age. Shedding (ecdysis) allows the skin to accommodate growth, with the outer layer peeling away once separation occurs between old and new skin.
Colour changes associated with shedding and seasonal conditions can make snakes appear different at different times of year.
Sexing Snakes
Male snakes possess paired reproductive organs known as hemipenes, which are normally inverted within the body. Externally, sexing snakes is difficult without experience, though tail shape, subcaudal scale counts and probing techniques may be used by trained professionals.
Snake Senses: How Snakes Detect Their World
Tongue and Jacobson’s Organ
The forked tongue is central to a snake’s sensory system. By flicking the tongue, chemical particles are collected and transferred to Jacobson’s Organ (the vomeronasal organ), allowing snakes to track prey, locate mates and navigate their environment.
Smell and Taste
Smell is one of a snake’s most important senses. Chemical cues left by prey or other snakes are followed with remarkable accuracy.
Sight
Vision varies between species. While not as sharp as mammals, snake vision is adequate for detecting movement and shapes, particularly in daylight-active species.
Hearing and Vibration
Snakes lack external ears but are highly sensitive to vibrations transmitted through the ground. This allows them to detect approaching animals or humans long before they are seen.
Touch
The skin itself contains sensory receptors, allowing snakes to feel pressure, texture and movement.
Why Snakes Enter Yards and Buildings
Snakes do not actively seek humans. In urban areas they are usually:
Following prey such as rodents, frogs or lizards
Seeking shelter during extreme heat or cold
Moving through established home ranges that predate development
Most encounters occur when a snake feels threatened or cornered, particularly during warmer months when activity increases.
Urban Reptile Removal: The Safe and Responsible Solution
Attempting to handle or kill a snake is dangerous and unnecessary. Snakes are protected wildlife and play an important ecological role.
Professional reptile removal ensures:
Safe capture without injury to people or animals
Correct identification of species
Legal relocation to suitable habitat
Reduced risk of repeat encounters
Understanding snake biology helps explain their presence — but experienced handling is essential for safe outcomes.
