An interesting addition to the Show this year, was a garden section which had some small display gardens, some products for sale and a pen of snakes.

The ones shown here are mostly tiger snakes, Notechis scutatus . Most of these lack the banding that gives them their common name. I don't actually recalled ever seeing one with obvious stripes. This is probably why we usually call them black snakes. The smaller snake in the bottom right of the bottom right picture is a copperhead/brown snake, Austrelaps superbus .

Tigers are one of the most venomous snake in the world and the most common seen snake in people's backyards. At least, they're the only sort I've ever seen, that i know of. The most reliable way to tell the difference between a tiger and a copper is to look at the shape of scale in the middle of the head, or so we were taught in school. Not very useful when you encounter the back half of snake intent on getting away as quick as it can. Both species prefer to get away if they can, rather than attack.

Click on the bottom two pictures for the movelets (1 Mb & 2 Mb files)