Highland Copperhead

Fascinating facts about the Highland Copperhead

• When sunlight hits its back, the snake can appear anywhere from pale grey to almost black, and it may have a thin strip of cream or yellow scales along its sides.
• In the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, these snakes are found in montane heath, sclerophyll forest, and beside swampy streams, where thick clumps of tussock grass provide cover.
• Females give birth to live young after the embryos develop inside retained eggs, a strategy called ovoviviparity. Litters can contain 9 to 31 babies.
• The species was first described by Gerard Krefft in 1864 from a specimen collected near Braidwood, and its name honors Edward Pierson Ramsay, a 19th-century Australian ornithologist and herpetologist.

At a glance

More reptiles to discover

Browse Feravox