as far as I could into the paddock,
climbed down off the logs,
retrieved a jigger and pinned the
animal while it was still trying to
figure out what had just happened.
This particular snake lived for
many years in captivity and was a
crowd pleaser at talks and demon-
strations.
Most wild tiger snakes in
Tasmania that are predominately
yellow or gold in colouration
nevertheless retain a range of other
darker markings (usually silver/
grey) such as bands and/or
splotches and spots. I have only
seen two solid-yellow specimens.
One was a headless corpse (again
from Liffey) delivered to me by a
farmer who thought he had
discovered a new species of snake,
and the other was on Chappell
Island of all places. While very
yellow wild snakes are quite rare,
captive-bred and raised 'fakes' can
easily be produced in numbers. Pale
brown/tan to yellowish Tiger Snakes
with darker bands are common in
many warmer, low-lying parts of
Tasmania, and if these animals are
mated in captivity the resulting