Climbing Behavior in the Checkered Keelback or Asiatic Water Snake <i>Xenochrophis piscator</i> (Schneider, 1799) (Colubridae: Natricinae) in the Western Ghats, India

Climbing behavior in a Checkered Keelback, Xenochrophis piscator (Schneider 1799), in central India

“…Although two Oriental Garden Lizards (Calotes versicolor complex) we saw in the same tree might have been potential prey, these snakes are not known to hunt lizards. Ample cover and suitable basking sites were available in the vicinity, so we are unable to explain why this snake or that observed by Phansalkar and Gowande (2017) climbed a tree.…”

“…Herein we record unusual climbing behavior in an aquatic snake. Phansalkar and Gowande (2017) documented a Checkered Keelback climbing a tree in a semi-evergreen forest in the northern Western Ghats, but climbing is an unusual and unexpected behavior for an aquatic snake.…”

Notes on the diet of the Checkered Keelback Watersnake (Fowlea piscator) including the first record of saurophagy

“…T he Checkered Keelback (Fowlea piscator) is a mediumsized natricid distributed from Afghanistan to southern China and southeastern Asia (Das and Das 2017). The species is known to feed frequently on fish, amphibians, and arthropods (Hossain 2016;Parmar 2018;Greeshma and Jayson 2021), occasionally on rodents and amphibian eggs (Phansalkar and Gowande 2017;Kalki 2020), and rarely on birds and turtles (Whitaker and Captain 2004;Gyawali 2019). Herein I describe predation and a predation attempt by F. piscator in Karnataka, India.…”