Snakes!

Out for a morning piss, eh?

Out for a morning piss, eh?[/quote]
Hey, I have a yard. Might as well use it! :wink:

Amazing photos, Sandman!

Since we’re on the subject of snakes, here are a few pics. The photo quality sucks - took them on an Apple QuickTake several years ago. I’m guessing the first is a bamboo viper. Saw these a fair bit, and this particular one fell out of a tree while I was cutting the grass:


After dark, I used to see banded kraits all the time, but the snake I saw most often by far was this kind:

I’ve heard conflicting opinions on what it is. If you can tell from my crappy photo, any takers? Habu? Boiga kraepelini? I’ve seen them range in color from very light to very dark and vivid - either that or I’m just seeing different snakes with my untrained eye.

The top one is definitely a green bamboo viper - you can tell by the pinkish tail and the white stripe along the side.

and the second one is the Taiwan Habu (also called the pointed-scaled pit viper, Trimeresurus mucrosquamatus)

Here’s the one I saw last year near Wulai:

[quote=“Chris”]Here’s the one I saw last year near Wulai:

[/quote]

Beautiful animal… :slight_smile:

Here’s a Bamboo Viper I found earlier today down a disused coalmine towards Keelung:

Snakes are so cool. :slight_smile:

Should I put up the Johnny Cash lyrics again? Naah! Flickr’s enough, eh? Very nice, DM. Did you need to handle it at all? How did you manage to get it to stay still?

Ha ha. I’ve just seen your lyrics. :slight_smile:

I didn’t handle it because it was annoyed - I did poke it with a stick later and it just went away. I got it to stay still by getting it fixated on my right hand - it was watching it all the time which is how I managed to get it in the pre strike pose and keep it from moving.

Cool shots. Is that mine shaft the one we talked about last year? On the other side of the hill from Shifen?

No…actually I never did find that mine. This one was near Reifang near the old bridge which used to take the mining trains across to the works. I’d still like to locate the Shi Fen one, though.

There I was riding my bike along the mountain road above Neiwan on Sunday when I saw a beautiful green snake warming itself on the road. Today I did a search on Forumosa and discovered its a green bamboo viper. You know sometimes ignorance is better.

I used to like bamboo, I am not sure I am going to be walking under any bamboo trees in the near future after reading abou these guys.Haven’t worried about snakes on the road in a long time. It was just the big fat rattlers in the Rockies I would dodge but that was a long time ago.

So am I more likely to have to ride over/go over these snakes in the summer or after rains?

This afternoon, Chris and I were out in Pinglin. We stopped at a campsite and, in the reception room, found a couple live snakes in jars. One looked a lot like a banded krait, but the women in the office said it wasn’t. Is there a snake in Taiwan that is non-venomous and has dark and light banded marks just like the banded krait?

Mucha Man wrote [quote]Is there a snake in Taiwan that is non-venomous and has dark and light banded marks just like the banded krait?[/quote]
There’s only one possibility here: a snake called the White Plum Blossom Snake Lycodon ruhstrati ruhstrati looks similar to the banded krait.

Did it look like this?

The woman called it a “Mei hua she” - plum blossom snake. So that could well be it. It seemed to be a juvenile - about 12cm long.

No, it looked more like this:

Thread locked due to too many images. It nearly stalls my old computer when moderation tasks are required.

Please continue the discussion in this thread: [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/snakes-part-ii/32074/1 ~ Part II[/url]

Chris
Moderator
Pets & Other Animals

And that thread has been locked now too, so please continue in the even newer thread

1 Like