how to differentiate between common Indian Krait and common Wolf snake

Yesterday when I was out in the evening, suddenly I got a call from home; my mother was yelling “there is a venomous snake in the house, come quick…”. So, I hurried back home only to find out that a common wolf snake was climbing the corner of our door. Everyone believed that it’s a very venomous snake and I should kill it instantly. After talking with them I found out that all they were talking about is of common Indian Krait. It took me a sweating discussion to convince them that it is not a venomous snake; it’s a non-venomous common Wolf snake. Actually people often mistake these two snakes for each other.

COMMON INDIAN KRAIT

COMMON WOLF SNAKE

But is it that much difficult to identify them separately? Absolutely not. One can distinguish a venomous snake from a non-venomous one by opening its mouth and checking the fangs, though its not an easy process. But there is a catch, common Wolf snake’s front teeth of upper and lower jaws are larger which are often mistaken for fangs. So finally the question comes to, ‘how does a lay person identify a non-venomous common Wolf snake from a venomous common Krait snake??

• Firstly, there is a size difference. Adult common Wolf snake can be upto 2.5ft of length but specimens larger than 2 ft are rare. Whereas an adult common Krait snake can be upto 6ft long but the average is 3.5ft. Then the fact arises that a common Wolf snake can be mistaken for a sub-adult common Krait snake. So we come to next difference.


• The white stripes of a common Wolf snake are a bit broader than the common Krait snakes and also the stripes are bordered with somewhat darker scales than the body. Moreover the stripes of common Krait snakes are paired, whereas common Wolf snakes’ stripes are not paired. The most prominent difference from the point of stripes is that common Wolf snakes have got a broad stripe on their neck which is absent in common Krait snakes.
  
  


• Thirdly, the body shape of common Krait snake is somewhat triangular and it is ridged along its vertebral line. In common Wolf snake, the body is roundish and there is no ridge formation.
  
  


• Lastly, the scales of common Krait snake along its vertebral line are hexagonal, means six-sided, and larger which differentiates these from other body scales (in the picture it is actually a banded krait, but this feature is common in all type of kraits.). But we don’t see such phenomena in case of common Wolf snakes. All the scales on its back are of same size and shape. And this one is the most important one.
  
  

So by following these simple points one can easily distinguish between the common Wolf and common Krait and I won’t have to hurried back home for a false alarm. ;-)


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