Ceylon Pipe Snake

The Ceylon Pipe Snake is a small, cylindrical burrowing snake endemic to the island of Sri Lanka. It belongs to the ancient pipe snake family, a lineage of primitive, fossorial snakes with a wide but scattered distribution across South and Southeast Asia.

Harmless to humans, this species is best known for its vivid banded underside, which it displays as part of a striking defensive posture when threatened.

• Smooth, glossy, cylindrical body with little tapering
• Dark brown to black dorsal coloration, sometimes with pale crossbands
• Bright red and black banded pattern on the ventral surface
• Small head barely distinct from the body, with tiny eyes
• Adults typically 30-70 cm in length

Endemic to Sri Lanka, where it inhabits moist lowland and hill forests, paddy fields, and gardens with loose, damp soil. It is fossorial and spends most of its time underground or beneath surface debris.

Nocturnal and secretive, feeding mainly on other snakes, eels, and burrowing amphibians. When threatened, it flattens its body, curls its tail to display the bright red-and-black underside, and may hide its head beneath its coils as a startle defense. It is live-bearing, producing small numbers of young.