Rare snake species found near zoo in Hyderabad

A rare snake species has been found in the vicinity of the Nehru Zoological Park here, zoo officials said today.
On July 28, three animal keepers - A Prabhakar, M Subhash and A Sachin - rescued a rare snake in the environs of the Tadbun Masjid-e-Abubaker Siddiq area located in the park's periphery, an official release said today.
The reptile was identified as a Yellow Collared Wolf snake (lycodon flavicollis) by the zoo veterinary section, it said.
"The snake is about 46 cm long. Presence of thick yellow collar, which extended to lower of head, and chocolate brown degenerated bands on mid body were noted," it said.

This species was said to have been found in 2007 on the periphery of the Anaikatti Reserve Forest, Western Ghats, Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, it said.
It was also recorded from the Tirupati Hills in Andhra Pradesh of the Eastern Ghats. A few additional photographic records of this species exist from Magadi, Tumkur, and Hospete on the Deccan Plateau of Karnataka, the release said.
Nehru Zoological Park Curator Shivani Dogra said after keen examination of the species, it was released in the zoo campus.