Ladder Snake Zamenis/Rhinechis scalaris

The Ladder Snake is native to southern France and the Iberian Peninsula. It grows typically to some 1.2 metres but can reach 1.6 metres. The adult has two dark dorsal stripes from head to tail and a pale underside. The juvenile is different, paler and having dark bars along the body like ladder rungs, after which the snake is named (no, it is not related to the game "Snakes and Ladders"). It is a rat snake: not venomous but suffocating its prey of mainly small rodents. It is diurnal in all but the hottest months.