Wild kids

Common name: Blind Snake
Scientific name: Ramphotyphlops nigrescens
Photo: S. Swanson/Nature Focus, Australian Museum

Reptiles

Blind Snake

Blind Snakes live in south-eastern Australia. They are found wherever ants (their main food supply) are plentiful.

This Blind Snake is eating some ant eggs and pupae.

Blind Snakes eat ants and termites. They also eat the eggs and larvae of ants and termites.

To find their food Blind Snakes flick their tongue to taste and smell the trail of ants and termites. They follow the ants' trails to the nest. They rake ants and termites into their mouth with their top jaw and swallow their food whole.

Owls, feral cats, foxes and some snakes, especially the Bandy Bandy, eat Blind Snakes.

Blind Snakes move in a side-to-side swimming motion when above the ground. Below the ground they use tunnels made by insects.

Blind Snakes lay one to twenty round eggs each breeding season. Young Blind Snakes look after themselves.