The Rhinoceros Ratsnake (Gonyosoma boulengeri) is a non-venomous colubrid reptile in the Colubridae family. It is also known as the Vietnamese Longnose Snake.

It is oviparous because it lays eggs. The female lays 5-10 eggs, which hatch after about 60 days. 

The baby snakes, called hatchlings or snakelets, are 30-35 centimetres (12-14 inches) long at birth. The snakelets are brownish-grey with dark edges on their back scales. As they grow, they change colour to steel grey after 12-14 months, then to a bluish-green until they gain their adult green colour after 24 months (two years). 

Some snakelets do not become green because they remain at the sub-adult stage in which they remain a steel-greyish colour.

The photographed baby Rhinoceros Ratsnakes are one year old. They were born at the Paris Zoo on 20 August 2018. 

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM