Thermophis baileyi, also known as "Bailey's snake" or the "hot-spring keel-back", is a rare species of colubrid

Colubrid

A colubrid is a member of the snake family Colubridae. This broad classification of snakes includes about two-thirds of all snake species on earth. The earliest species of the snake family date back to the Oligocene epoch. With 304 genera and 1,938 species, Colubridae is the largest snake family...

 snake.

Geographic range

It is found only at high altitudes (14,000 feet = 4,267 m) in the mountains of Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

 near two hot springs.

Description

Thermophis baileyi is olive green, with five series of indistinct spots dorsally, most pronounced in the forebody. It has a dusky postocular streak, and dusky posterior edges to the labials. The belly is bluish-grey, with each ventral black basally. The young are darker than adults.

Dorsal scales in 19 rows, all keeled except last row, with indistinct double apical facets. Ventrals 201-221; anal divided; subcaudals 91-111, mostly divided, but with a few entire.

Adults may attain a total length of 2 feet 6 inches (76 cm).

Taxonomy

The existence of Bailey's snake was first announced in the scientific literature in 1907, when it was described as a new species by Frank Wall. Wall originally classified it as Tropodinotus (=Natrix) baileyi, before it was realized that Bailey's snake did not fit in the genus Natrix. In 1953 Malnate placed it in the new genus Thermophis, designating baileyi as the type species.

Habitat

All specimens found appear to live within about 1 km of a hot spring known as Chutsen Chugang Hot Springs, on the grounds of the Zhoto Terdrom / Tidro Nunnery in Maldrogongkar / Mozhugongka County, near Lhasa

Lhasa

Lhasa is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China and the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau, after Xining. At an altitude of , Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world...

 in the Tibet Autonomous Region

Tibet Autonomous Region

The Tibet Autonomous Region , Tibet or Xizang for short, also called the Xizang Autonomous Region is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China , created in 1965....

 at an altitude of 4350 m. There also has been a report of Bailey's snakes near the Yangpachen

Yangpachen

Yangbajain is a town approximately north-west of Lhasa, halfway to Damxung in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The town lies just south of the Nyainqêntanglha Mountains, in an upland lush green valley surrounded by the tents of nomads with grazing yak and sheep populating the hillside...

/Yangbajain Hot Springs, at about the same altitude in Maldrogongkar County, Tibet Autonomous Region

Tibet Autonomous Region

The Tibet Autonomous Region , Tibet or Xizang for short, also called the Xizang Autonomous Region is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China , created in 1965....

.

This genus of snakes lives at the highest altitude of any snake in the world.