Helicops angulatus Banded South American Water Snake
Also known as:
Brown-banded Water Snake, Broad-banded Water Snake, Aquatic Hunter Snake, Mountain Keelback Water Snake
"Fujimori Sidewalk" along Rio Arambasa, Loreto, PeruJanuary 17, 2013
Banded South American Water Snake (Helicops angulatus)
This is a common aquatic snake in Peruvian Amazonia, and our group saw several of them. This fairly drab individual was the only one I personally saw in the wild though. It was stretched across a sidewalk that runs along the river's edge and past at least one village. The sidewalk is colloquially called a "Fujimori sidewalk" because it was one of many built as part of a fairly blatant effort to buy support among rural villagers for past president of Peru Alberto Fujimori.

Here is a complete list of the herps I saw in the wild on my 2013 MT Amazon Expeditions trip.

near Ahuano, Orellana, EcuadorFebruary 21, 2025
Banded South American Water Snake (Helicops angulatus)
This young snake seemed very happy in a little pond full of little Dendropsophus frogs.
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