Snakes!

The warm weather and rains of spring have arrived and the snakes are again out and about! Here’s a thread to tell us about what you’ve seen, or to have questions asked and answered about Taiwan’s magnificent variety of snakes!

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This was the first snake I saw this year: A cute little Sauter’s Water Snake (Amphiesma sauteri) I came across over the Chinese New Year holiday on Tiger Head Mountain in Taoyuan. This past week I’ve come across a few habus and a Dinodon rufozonatum on my bike rides. With the warming temps, sightings should only increase. :discodance:

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this year I haven´t spot any yet, but so far I have see like three cobras, several small green snakes (the cute harmless one, not the viper motherfucker), and a carpet on the road. Oh, and some small brownish snake in the Caolin trek that could be poisonous (triangle shape head) and another longer snake, same trek same day.

I think that it´s a little bit soon for seeing snakes in the north, but lizards are already out :slight_smile:

Saw 2 sluggish beasts last weekend up in Xizhi. Brown and unidentified. Looking forward to more on this thread :thumbsup:.

[quote=“jesus80”]this year I haven´t spot any yet, but so far I have see like three cobras, several small green snakes (the cute harmless one, not the viper motherfucker), and a carpet on the road. Oh, and some small brownish snake in the Caolin trek that could be poisonous (triangle shape head) and another longer snake, same trek same day.

I think that it´s a little bit soon for seeing snakes in the north, but lizards are already out :slight_smile:[/quote]

Once temps are over 18C, everything is in play, even here in the North. The Greater Green snakes should be out in force soon. Where did you see the cobras? And do you have a google map of this “Caolin trek”? That sounds like my kind of place!

Nice! Get any photos of the snakes? I’ll be up in Sanzhi on at least one of the Tomb Sweeping weekend days to do a bit of herping. Anyone interested in joining me, send me a PM, I have all the headlamps, flashlights, hooks, tongs, bags, etc…so you just need to bring a healthy interest in nature if you want to see some of Taiwan’s hidden treasures. :slight_smile:

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[quote=“onionsack”][quote=“jesus80”]this year I haven´t spot any yet, but so far I have see like three cobras, several small green snakes (the cute harmless one, not the viper motherfucker), and a carpet on the road. Oh, and some small brownish snake in the Caolin trek that could be poisonous (triangle shape head) and another longer snake, same trek same day.

I think that it´s a little bit soon for seeing snakes in the north, but lizards are already out :slight_smile:[/quote]

Once temps are over 18C, everything is in play, even here in the North. The Greater Green snakes should be out in force soon. Where did you see the cobras? And do you have a google map of this “Caolin trek”? That sounds like my kind of place![/quote]

The first time I spotted a cobra (or something that had a hood that pop out when threatened) was in Hualien, in a path near the beach. It was CNY, but the weather was awesome. I was riding my bike and the animal was overcome with some uncontrollable rage and tried to bite us xD

Then the second time it was in road number 7, that goes from Sanxia to Yilan, more or less. We were crossing the mountain, and there were woods everywhere. The animal seemed to be quite pacific, which is the behaviour I´d expect from a cobra, but when I approached it, it showed the hood, but it didn’t even bother to confront me. Well, sorry, this was the first time.

The third time was in Yilan, in some road going uphill to some golf camp. My gf spotted it on the side of the road, and I could see it only partially. The animal was huge.

As for the caolin, gaolin, kaolin, whatever trail, it´s this one:

taiwanderful.net/guides/caol … oric-trail

It´s located in the north east coast, and it goes from Fulong to Gongliao, more or less.

However, if you´re looking for snakes, I´d recommend you to go by night to YMS and check the sides of the road. I´m sure that there must be snakes there. I even saw some people “snake seeing” or something in Wanli by night. They were checking the sides of the road with flashlights. If you ever do that, I would like to join, specially if you are experienced with these animals. I used to love them, and now… I´m just scared of them :smiley:

PS: here in Taiwan there’s at least one more snake with hood besides the cobra. They look similar, not sure if they’re easy to tell apart…

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[quote=“jesus80”][quote=“onionsack”][quote=“jesus80”]this year I haven´t spot any yet, but so far I have see like three cobras, several small green snakes (the cute harmless one, not the viper motherfucker), and a carpet on the road. Oh, and some small brownish snake in the Caolin trek that could be poisonous (triangle shape head) and another longer snake, same trek same day.

I think that it´s a little bit soon for seeing snakes in the north, but lizards are already out :slight_smile:[/quote]

Once temps are over 18C, everything is in play, even here in the North. The Greater Green snakes should be out in force soon. Where did you see the cobras? And do you have a google map of this “Caolin trek”? That sounds like my kind of place![/quote]

The first time I spotted a cobra (or something that had a hood that pop out when threatened) was in Hualian, in a path near the beach. It was CNY, but the weather was awesome. I was riding my bike and the animal was overcome with some uncontrollable rage and tried to bite us xD

Then the second time it was in road number 7, that goes from Sanxia to Yilan, more or less. We were crossing the mountain, and there were woods everywhere. The animal seemed to be quite pacific, which is the behaviour I´d expect from a cobra, but when I approached it, it showed the hood, but it didn’t even bother to confront me. Well, sorry, this was the first time.

The third time was in Yilan, in some road going uphill to some golf camp. My gf spotted it on the side of the road, and I could see it only partially. The animal was huge.

As for the caolin, gaolin, kaolin, whatever trail, it´s this one:

taiwanderful.net/guides/caol … oric-trail

It´s located in the north east coast, and it goes from Fulong to Gongliao, more or less.

However, if you´re looking for snakes, I´d recommend you to go by night to YMS and check the sides of the road. I´m sure that there must be snakes there. I even saw some people “snake seeing” or something in Wanli by night. They were checking the sides of the road with flashlights. If you ever do that, I would like to join, specially if you are experienced with these animals. I used to love them, and now… I´m just scared of them :smiley:

PS: here in Taiwan there’s at least one more snake with hood besides the cobra. They look similar, not sure if they’re easy to tell apart…[/quote]

Ah yes, I’m familiar with that hike. It’s a good one! And you’re right, YMS is always a good option for snakes. As for the #7 cross-island road that runs from Daxi to Yilan, that’s like a second home to me, and I can often be found up in those mountains looking for snakes, particularly around the area of Baling and LaLaShan. Taiwan has only one species of cobra (Naja atra) and I think the other snake that hoods up that you are referring to is the Stejneger’s Mountain Keelback ( Pseudoxenodon stejnegeri), although the hood isn’t nearly as wide, and the snake itself is much smaller. It’s a beautiful snake, and an encounter was one of my highlights from last year. :smiley: Congrats on the sightings, no need to fear snakes - they generally aren’t aggressive in the least and have no interest whatsoever in tangling with a human.

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Well, while I expect a chill out behaviour from cobras, vipers are a whole different thing; they’re rather aggressive and they are usually difficult to see, which makes a bad combination for human bipeds :smiley:

“aggressive” is too strong a term for even vipers. They ARE masters of camouflage, and will strike at something if it’s in their grill and they feel threatened. But they won’t actively chase anything that keeps a respectful distance. Bites are rare, and almost always DEFENSIVE - when the snake feels threatened, or someone inadvertently steps on one. The last thing they want to do is waste venom on something they can’t swallow, or unnecessarily irritate something far larger than it that can kill it.

Yeah, but that’s exactly what I meant: they get pissed off easily, and they get stepped on more easily than others.

Picked up the first road-kill of the season yesterday. My wife was going on and on about it having a triangular head and being a bamboo snake. I had to do some educayshun there.

http://www.snakesoftaiwan.com/Cyclophiops%20major/species_cyclophiops_major.htm

Haha, yeah, that’s a Greater Green, not a GTV. Nice to see them out: the hills should be covered with them soon. Here’s the latest snake I’ve come across this spring (I’m up to 13 now, I think): A Red Bamboo Ratsnake (Oreocryptophis porphyracea kawakamii), spotted near the columbarium in Sanzhi…

…and believe it or not, here’s a roadkill of the same species (O. porphyracea) that I came across just tonight on a bike ride up my local hill here in Taoyuan. Incredible how different juveniles and adults of the same species can look!

seeing lots of bamboo vipers, banded kraits and cobras out now. both in mountains and at low elevation farmlands. Going to be a great season! Lastly, I ran over a cat snake today by accident :frowning: couldn’t avoid it, and about 5 scooters behind me hit it too, at least it went quick i presume.

I thought this thread talks about the zodiac yr…lol. amazed by so many beautiful snakes but shocked by that roadkilled one…lol.
I don’t afraid about bloody injured human being’s parts since I saw a lot, but this’s different…
maybe the topic needs to be added some warning…
btw, some Taiwanese love to eat snake soup…they believe it can make their skin better n healthier… :doh:

My friend was ‘treated’ to a dish of 5-kinds-of-snake soup last week. He said it was pretty tough to keep down (add vomit smiley here).
Then the host gave him a large bag of the stuff to take away - he’s got it in his freezer if anyone fancies a bowl.

I have’t seen any snake this year, and I swear I pay attention every time I go to the country side… . And interestingly enough, I’ve never seen a snake in YMS, although it’s said that it’s plagued (and I believe it).

[quote=“onionsack”]Haha, yeah, that’s a Greater Green, not a GTV. Nice to see them out: the hills should be covered with them soon. Here’s the latest snake I’ve come across this spring (I’m up to 13 now, I think): A Red Bamboo Ratsnake (Oreocryptophis porphyracea kawakamii), spotted near the columbarium in Sanzhi…

[/quote]

awesome pic!
onionsack, if you ever go on a herping excursion in the Hsinchu area, I would like to hook up, if it’s okay!

So jealous of the number of cobras you guys see down there in the south. Any specific locations you could point me to via Google map that I could check out when I make it down there where you see a lot of them?

It’s still early in the season, and the snakes are just now starting to come out in force in the north so if you hike consistently on YMS, you should come across one soon. But snakes are not easy to spot in the first place, especially diurnals: They don’t make a big racket when they move, like lizards, frogs, birds and mammals etc… and they have incredibly effective camouflage. Hate the word “plagued” though, when it comes to snakes. They’re part of the delicate ecosystem that has existed for millennia. If there’s a creature infesting that mountain in ever greater numbers and bringing catastrophe to every species around it, it’s humans.

[quote=“thesublimenakedfairy”]
awesome pic!
onionsack, if you ever go on a herping excursion in the Hsinchu area, I would like to hook up, if it’s okay![/quote]

Definitely! Always up for checking out a new herping location! And for anyone interested, there will be a large international group of us nature-lovers heading to Baling (on the Northern Cross-Island Road) on the weekend of May 4th to look for snakes. This is THE best spot in Taiwan to see a huge variety of snake species (as well as other amazing flora and fauna and vistas). We’ve created a Facebook group for the trip so PM me for details and I’ll add you to it.