Grass snake

Denmark is not a country with very many snakes. Actually, there are only two species: the viper and the grass snake. The grass snake is Denmark’s longest snake, it can be up to 130 cm.

Grass snakes are usually fairly easy to recognise. They are quite slim, with a small head and two distinct yellow spots on the neck. The grass snake doesn’t like being too dry, so it looks for places that are green and moist. It is also a competent swimmer. So sometimes you might see it in the middle of a lake, with just its head over the surface of the water.

If a grass snake is startled or feels threatened, it has two tricks it uses to fool a potential enemy (or a slightly too curious human). The first one is to play dead – it rolls onto its back, twists its body around in strange, stiff curves and opens its mouth wide so that its tongue hangs out. The other, if you try to touch it, is to release a very smelly liquid which smells like a mixture between garlic and just plain rot.

Like all other snakes, the grass snake sheds the outer layer of its skin regularly. The dead skin is pulled off in one piece, and can be found on the forest floor, tangled in between plant stems and stones.