Snakes!

As you wish!
:smiley:

Be afraid…be very afraid…

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Night walk tonight on the outside of my perimeter wall.

Shit iPhone 6s Plus pictures.

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No hating that puffy f[l]at ass!

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Geez! Never, ever touch a snake in Australia. Everything wants to kill you.

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One would hope people would educate their children about their surroundings. In canada we were taught early the difference between bear Cubs and dogs :yum:

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Do you feel that there are fewer and fewer sightings of snakes? I never go herping, but I live in the mountains. 5 years ago I would see a snake once a week, or at least roadkill every other day. This summer is now over, and I haven’t seen a single snake this year.

Haven’t gone herping this year but I’ve had a few encounters. I discussed about this or something very similar in this thread, but @Explant is stubborn and couldn’t see it :smiley:

I do believe there are territorial changes from year to year in terms of population and migrations; where some years a species is predominant, it might be replaced by another or maybe just fuck off somewhere else or die off the next years. I cannot be coincidence when you see drastic changes doing “many” explorations in one area.

I’ve never seen one in Taiwan, and Iblike to think I’m observant, and I like to spend time in nature. Lots of spiders, though

Given your location you better pay more attention, otherwise one day you’ll give your last hundred steps…

That’s the thing. I pay attention. Observant. Haven’t seen any. Where are the snakes this year?

You said you never saw one in Taiwan, but you’ve been here more than a year, right?

They are… everywhere. Quite literally.

One time I saw a roadkill in Zhongshan bei lu, pretty close to Shilin.

Less than 2

I am stubborn, but not really sure what you mean haha.

I have had 2 cobras in my house in the last month alone. And I live in a notoriously difficult herping spot for snakes.

Maybe a year ago, I don’t really remember when, we had a chat about snake population changes in specific areas. Your posture was that the changes in the number of findings over the time in a specific area did not reflect reality, they were just anecdotal. My point was that these perceived changes couldn’t be just coincidence when there was such consistency.

I haven’t seen a cobra in years :frowning:

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Ahh, gotcha. Not sure about the conversation sorry. this sentiment has been stated over and over by people that arent really taking into account the whole picture. Not just with snake, but loads of animal groups, especially those which are of " less importance". Birds, fish, mammals as examples are far more diligently tracked and recorded. Not sure what the conversation was ,but we could rekindle it here and have a good old fashioned public think tank/brain storm! Seems beneficial :slight_smile:

On that note, I am not ever 100% set in my opinions, biology doesnt allow that! in regards to snake population counting I have found the guys doing it in Taiwan, as hard working and well intentioned as they are, are truly missing the point in regards to broader scope. Most “herpers” fall victim to this thinking it seems. Additionally, most (snake counters) are road hunters, which is logical as per logistics but inaccurate as per reality. Not saying that as a jab at those people, more just a point of fact we need to realize and understand when doing research. It is insanely hard to accurately count certain species, snakes being one example. Road hunting is convenient and gives a very (VERY) basic idea of local populations, but is flawed on most levels. Ask a caecilian researcher about population densities, distribution and so on and understand the reality of the ignorance we all live in. We (people) are rarely as informed as we like to give ourselves credit for. This is a big issue with research, and academia. ego trumps reality. Perhaps that was my point back then? I have held this perspective for 25 years in hepatology. generally speaking.

Depends on location, luck, food, hide outs etc. trillions of variables. I see nothing but cobras this year in this specific spot. no matter though, nationwide they are doing well. Unfortunately some herpers have taken it upon themselves to remove common species like cobras, king rats and banded kraits from wild areas because they eat other species of snakes. This to me is problematic as they play god without a full understanding of the while picture. It is even more problematic because they do so pointing the finger at the Buddhists that release animals to the wild and they themselves use the same justifications to do their budding. A human ego problem more than a scientific one. at best.

basically, 2 wrongs dont make a right in this sense of native species relocation AND eradication.

What are your thoughts on hepatitis B? :smiley:

Nah, I don’t pretend that you can get an accurate estimation of a species population, but I think it is significative when you see substantial, significative, changes in the amount of findings of one species and another for a given location.

I see you have already said their methods can’t be trusted or aren’t accurate, but I run into these two herpetologists a few years ago and I discussed with them this topic; they confirmed that the populations “move”.

As I said, it’s quite significative that for several years you mainly see let’s say wolf snakes in one spot only to vanish the next year and being replaced with lots of kraits, similar time of the day and same time of the year. That means something. It can’t be just coincidence.

Damn, got me. *herpetology screenshot to show what I am dealing with on this dumb ass phone. My bad!

I think this is one of the main fatal flaws in certain fields of field biology. They think they know more of what amounts to truly very basic data counts. like, astoundingly inaccurate methods. I dont pretend to have a better way of counting other than “more”. Not sure anyone has a better method. but it is species dependent . What I am saying is more that academics need to stop being so egotistical on their “results” when they have such piss poor data to make such claims to begin with.

And yes, animals do move. It doesn’t take a PhD to understand this. that is part of the problem. The variables in nature are so damn astoundingly diverse, that the numbers compound into unfathomable realities. Meanwhile scientists are talking about how many they found on a roadside or in very few traps, as if that represented reality. Biology should be humbling, it makes us realize how little we actually know. Some biologists dont agree with that memo.