Death-feigning, also known as thanatosis, shamming dead, playing dead, or playing possum, is a form of defense behaviour exhibited by a variety of animals. It is usually employed as a last-resort anti-predatory measure (Gregory et al. 2007). Different types of death-feigning occur (see Vogel & Han-Yuen 2010), but the purpose is always to convince the pursuer that its prey is dead (as many predators prefer live prey) so that the pursuer loses interest and allows its intended prey to escape. Some snakes, like the North American hog-nosed snakes (e.g. Heterodon platirhinus) and European Grass Snake (Natrix natrix), also emit foul secretions (from the cloaca) which may signal to the predator that they are dead, and this may result in them being left alone to avoid infectious disease. According to Vogel & Han-Yuen (2010) death-feigning behaviour occurs in at least 19 genera of snakes, most of which occur in North America. This kind of behaviour is not necessarily more common on the latter continent, but rather, it may reflect a preponderance of observers in the region. We provide here the first detailed account of death-feigning by the Striped Grass Snake Psammophylax tritaeniatus, and follow this with a review of reported cases of death-feigning in southern and eastern African snakes.