Dasypeltis gansi
Dasypeltis gansi, commonly known as Gans's egg-eater or Gans' egg-eating snake, is a species of non-venomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to West Africa.
Etymology
The specific name, gansi, is in honor of American herpetologist Carl Gans.
D. gansi is found in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, the Republic of South Sudan, Senegal, Sudan, and Togo.
Habitat
The preferred natural habitat of D. gansi is savanna, at altitudes from sea level to.
Description
Females of D. gansi may attain a total length of about with the longest recorded specimen being long. Males are smaller, and may attain a total length of about. Dorsal coloration is almost uniformly beige.
Behavior
D. gansi is terrestrial and partly arboreal.
Diet
The diet of D. gansi consists entirely of birds' eggs. They are capable of swallowing eggs 3-4 times larger than their head, possibly the largest gape of all snake species.
Reproduction
D. gansi is oviparous.