I

Asiatic Herpetolo^ical Research

June 1995

Vol. 6, pp.

WWObservations on Arboreality in a Philippine Blind Snake

MAREN Gaulke
Muhliusstrasse 84, 24103 Kiel 1, Germany

Abstract. -Five blind snakes were observed in June 1990 in the rain forests of Sibutu Island in the Sulu

Archipelago, Philippines. Contrary to the usually fossorial habits of typhlopids, Ramphotyphlops suluensis(Taylor, 1918) shows arboreal habits. It climbed through trees at night using the prehensile tail andhindbody. When caught they extruded a strong smelling liquid from their cloaca. Relatively long tails arefound in some other rain forest dwelling typhlopids, which may also have arboreal habits.

Key words:

Reptilia, Ophidia, Typhlopidae, Ramphotyphlops suluensis, Philippines, ecology.

and the relative humidity between 70 and95%.

Introduction
Little is known of the behavior of blind

Information issnakes (Typhlopidae).
andconsistsof little
normally generalized
more than that typhlopids are small,burrowing snakes, which live in decaying
logs, humus and leaf litter, and feed mainly
on ants and termites, especially their grubs,pupae and eggs (e. g. Taylor, 1922;

This gap in observations is certainly due

Typhlopids

are very inconspicuous and rather dull
looking, and as such, arouse the interest offew people, even among herpetologists.
About 168 species are known (Hahn,1980). Many are found infrequently, andoften are known from one or a few

Due to their size,specimens only.
coloration, and secretive habits, they arehard to observe.

However, observations

reported here on a rain forest dwelling blind
snake in the Philippines, indicate that at least
not all of them are as secretive as generallyassumed.

Methods
1990 a three week field survey
was conducted on Sibutu, a small island in
the Sulu-Archipelago, a few miles off thenortheast coast of Sabah, Borneo (04°46.4'N, 119° 28.8'E). Observations andcollections of amphibians and reptiles weremade within a forested area (primary andsecondary lowland forest of the molave typesensu Dickerson, 1928). Short, but heavy,
In Junerains fell every

twowhere the species, previously synonymized
with Ramphotyphlops olivaceus (Gray,1845), is revalidated. Ramphotyphlops
suluensis reaches a length of approximately

40 cm, the eyes are distinctive, and the tail ismore than twice as long as broad.

Loveridge, 1946; Gruber, 1980).

to a number of different factors.

The nomenclatural history and taxonomyof the typhlopids observed and caught on
Sibutu is discussed in Gaulke (in press),to three days, thetemperature ranged between 25 and 32°C,© 1995 by Asiatic Herpetological ResearchThedorsal side is gray, the ventral side is cream,with bright white scales along the medianrow.

Observations
Although a considerable amount of time
was spent turning and splitting decaying
logs, and digging in humus and leaf litter insearch of blind snakes, all efforts wereunsuccessful. However, a few days beforeI

had to leave Sibutu Island, the luck turned.

While looking for geckos with a flashlightbetween 2200 and 0200 hours, the firstblind snake was observed, not on theground as expected, but on a tree on an
almost leafless twig approximately 3 m
above the ground. While trying to reach it,
the disturbed animal let itself drop to theground, and vanished into the leaf litter.
During the following three nights, four more
specimens were observed, all on branches
and twigs above my head. Being more
careful now, it was quite easy to catch them.
All four reacted to the capture with theexcretion of a pungent musk from theircloaca, the stench of which adhered to theskin for some time.

Before capture, the mode of locomotionof the climbing blind snakes was observed

Vol. 6, p. 46

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchJune 1995

FIG. 1. Ramphotyphlops suluensis climbing in an avocado tree.

FIG. 2. Ramphotyphlops suluensis making searching movements with its stiffened forepart while climbing.

Vol. 6, p. 47

Asiatic Herpetological Research

June 1995

Discussion

While the tail and hindbody
is tightly coiled around a twig, they crawl

for some time.

forward with the free part of their body.
Depending on the thickness of the twig, they
may use protrusions as resistance and hold,or make serpentine movements, with partsof their body hanging loosely down on both
After the forepart issides of the twig.
thesecured,
tail/body grip is released andCharacteristic features of typhlopid
a cylindrical body, smoothsmall scales throughout the entire body, asmall narrow head with a solid cranium, ashort broad tail ending in a sharp spine, andsnakes are:reduced eyes covered by much larger scales.

then dragged forward, and anchored further

These adaptations for fossorial life are inalmost complete contrast to theCompared to typical arboreal snakes,
whip snakes or flying snakes, they

characteristics of typical arboreal snakes,
such as a laterally compressed or triangularalong.
likemove very slowly, but are neverthelessskilled and effective climbers.

During theirmovements, they stop relatively often anddemonstrate a conspicuous behavior. Whilethe hind part is coiled in the tree, thebody, a thin prehensile tail, and medium
sized to large eyes. However, as shown byR. suluensis, it can be erroneous to interpretthe mode of living from the habitus alone.

stiffened forepart is stretched into the air,making slow circular movements. Whenthey discover another twig or branch within

Only the relatively longer tail compared toother typhlopids (in most typhlopids the tailis about as long as wide) might beinterpreted as an adaptation towards

their reach with this searching movements,arboreality.

they might climb over to it. All the while
they are tongue flicking. (Fig. 1, 2).

Two of thepreserved

snakes captured wereand transferred to the

Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum
Senckenberg (SMF 74247/8). The stomachof the larger snake (total length 357 mm,11.5 g) contained part of anweight
unidentified earthworm, with a surprisingly
large girth in relation to the tiny mouth of thesnake. The two other specimens were kept
alive for further observation.
They areoftheLarvae
nocturnal.
moth,strictly
Galleria mellonella, were offered as food,but they were never observed feeding.
Nonetheless, their good condition after
several months in captivity indicated someFor video records they weresmall avocado tree during
onaplaced
the same movements couldHeredaytime.
be observed and recorded, as describedfood uptake.

When released in the middle of theavocado stem, they more often climbed upthan down, searching for a resting place
within the branches. However, sometimes
they climbed down and started to burrow
above.

into the soil of the flower pot, proving thatthey are as effective in digging as inclimbing.

The question remains, why are they
climbing in trees, as the disadvantage isobvious.
They are more exposed tonocturnal animals, such asfrompredation

owls or cat snakes, than their relatives
which only seldomly leave their burrows.
Few blind snakes were observed climbing
on trees before. A Ramphotyphlops
nigrescens was found 5 m above the groundin a tree (Shine and Webb,1990),
arboreality is discussed for R. braminus(Swanson, 1981), and it is reported forsome Leptotyphlopidae (Vanzolini, 1970).
Shine and Webb (1990) discuss arboreality
inscolecophidians as a feeding strategy.

They assume

that there may be little
difference for them to follow ant-trails
underground or on trees. However, theobservations on R. suluensis indicate that
this species is not incidentally climbing up
trees, but might be more or less specialized
on an arboreal life. All specimens on Sibutu
were found climbing, and none on theground. It can be assumed that R. suluensis
is not the only blind snake specialized onarboreality. Taylor (1922) collected several
Philippine typhlopids in the root balls of
aerial ferns, on felled trees.

He concluded

that they are living and hunting within theseroot balls. I assume it is much more likelythat they are using epiphytes, etc., only as
daytime retreats, actively searching for foodVol. 6, p. 48

Asiatic Herpetological Researchin the twigs and branches of the tree during

Those blind snakes found in
epiphytes have unusually long tails fornight time.

typhlopids, being four to seven times aslong as broad. In view of the skilled way
R. suluensis uses its much shorter tail for
climbing, they should be even better
equipped for an arboreal live.

The function of

thecloacal

June 1995

GEHLBACH, F. R., J. F. WATKINS, AND H. W.
RENO. 1968. Blind snake defensive behavior
elicited by ant attacks. Bioscience 18:784-785.

G RUBER,U.
1980.
Blindschlangen,undWiihlschlangen
Warzenschlangen. Pp. 362-366
In B. Grzimek (Ed), Grzimeks Tierleben. Band 6.
Kriechtiere.
Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag,Miinchen.

sac

HAHN, D. E.

substance, which R. suluensis used as adefense mechanism against capture, wasund Reptilien.

Anomalepidae, Leptotyphlopidae,Typhlopidae.

Das Tierreich 101:1-93. Walter deinvestigated in the leptotyphlopid
Leptotyphylops dulcis. Gehlbach et al.
(1968) found that it repelled attacking army
ants, upon which these snakes feed.
Furthermore the substance was found toophiophagous andinsectivorous snakes, a much more seriousrepelsympatricdanger to the blind snakes.

On the other

1980. Liste der rezenten Amphibien

Gruyter, Berlin.

LOVERIDGE, A.

1946. Reptiles of the Pacificworld. Macmillan Co., New York. 259 pp.

SHINE, R., AND J. K. WEBB.

1990. Natural
Journal of

history of Australian typhlopid snakes.

Herpetology 24(4):357-363.

hand, L. dulcis are attracted to their own

SWANSON, S.

colacal sac substance (Watkins et al., 1969),

arboreal blind snake? Northern Territory Naturalist,
Darwin, N.T. 4:13.

so it has different functions, as interspecificrepellent, and as intraspecific attraction. It
can be assumed that it has similar complex

TAYLOR, E. H.
Philippine Islands.
Manila. 312 pp.

functions in R. suluensis.

Acknowledgments
The field study was supported by the
Naturforschende
Senckenbergische
VideoFrankfurt
a. Main.
Gesellschaft,records were done in cooperation with Dr.
A. Altenbach, Kiel University. I thank Dr.
W. R. Branch, Port Elizabeth, for reviewing
the manuscript.

DICKERSON, R. S.

1928.

Distribution of life in

Philippine Bureau of Science,
Manila, Monograph 21:1-322 pp.
the Philippines.

GAULKE, M. (in press).

Die Herpetofauna von

Sibutu Island (Philippinen), unter Beriicksichtigung

zoogeographischer und okologischer Aspekte.
Senckenbergiana biologica

Typhlina

1922.

bramina, an

The snakes of thePhilippine Bureau of Science,

VANZOLINI, P. E. 1970. Climbing habits of
Leptotyphlopidae (Serpentes) and Wall's theory of
the evolution of the ophidian eye. Pap. Avul. Zool.
23:13-16.

WATKINS, J. F., F. R. GEHLBACH, AND J. C.
KROLL. 1969. Attractant-repellent secretions ofblind snakes (Leptotyphlops dulcis) and their army
ant pray (Neivamyrmex niggrescens). Ecology
50(6): 1098-1 102.

Literature Cited1981.