Tartar Sand Boa Eryx tataricus

The Tartar Sand Boa is native to semi-desert and steppe of Mongolia and China. It may also be the same Sand Boa as the Dwarf Sand Boa, E. milaris, of Central Asia and E. vittatus of Tajikistan. (Although non-venomous and harmless to people, it may also be the same snake as the Gobi Desert's legendary highly venomous Mongolian Death Worm, allegedly able to kill at a distance by spitting venom.)

It grows to 60cm-1 metre long. Its marbled pattern gives camouflage and it can bury itself in the sand (especially in colder seasons in the Ghobi where it uses rodent burrows to shelter from September to May). Diet is mainly lizards but also ground-nesting birds and small mammals.