Dice snake
The dice snake (Natrix tessellata) is a European nonvenomous snake belonging to the family Colubridae. It is a relative of the more known grass snake (Natrix natrix). The dice snake usually grows up to 100 cm, rarely more. The back of the body is dark gray or olive green. The back pattern consists of dark spots, which are grouped together like fields on the chessboard. The belly is yellowish with dark transverse spots.
On the small head it has large eyes with round pupil. It lives near the ponds and clean running water with rich riparian vegetation. It feeds almost exclusively on fish, with the exception of frogs and tadpoles. Small fish eats in the water, while the larger takes to land and waits for it to die. Dice Snake mates in April and May. In June or July lays 5 to 25 elongated eggs. The cubs hatch in late September. The dice snake is widespread in Slovenia.
Similar to other snakes, dice snake is afraid of humans and will always try to run away from you. If you get too close to it, raises the front part of the body and puffs it up. It hisses loudly and bumps head towards the striker, like it wanted to bite. Acting very convincing, it dispels many attackers. If you grab it, it sprinkles you with secretions admixed with feces. But it never bites. If you continue irritating, it pretends to be dead: snake throws on its back, droops a jaw, its tongue falls out of the mouth. Thus, it tries to convince an attacker, that it is smelly carrion.
Threats
Dice Snake is placed on the red list in the category of vulnerable species in Slovenia. It is mainly threaten by natural habitat change resulting from interventions in the water and riparian areas. Like many other species of snakes, also dice snake is generally persecuted by people.
