FieldHerpForum

This is the second Boiga kraepelini I found in as many weeks, and significantly larger than the last one, although still a juvie with much growing potential. As mentioned before, this is a frustrating snake for the solo herper: it doesn't fall for the hat trick (crawls right out from under it), and you can't just grab it and thrust its face in front of your macro lens, because it's a jumpy species with a mildly venomous bite, whic means you'll prematurely end your well-deserved road cruise bent over a ditch ralphing your guts out if he decides not to play along. So when I found this feller, I wasn't sure how to proceed, and finally decided to do the Helmut Newton thing: give the model a prop and let her play with it. So I put the snake on the seat and shot things as they unfolded, Vogue photographer-style ("Yeah, baby! Showmewhatchagot! Thaaat's it!") . It took the beast quite a while before it decided to leave the bike - so many interesting things to check out, and so many warm places! I'm still amazed that he didn't burn his keister off on the exhaust pipe (see last pic)
























Addendum:

Why use a bike instead of a nice, comfy car for cruising (unless the target area is more than 20 miles away)? Well, the nights are nice and cool here in the tropics; the scooter uses 90% less gas than my van; the time from stopping the vehicle to grabbing an animal is greatly reduced, and, most important, most of the roads I cruise here are very narrow one-laners with dense vegetation on both sides that I can hardly maneuver in the van, let alone pull over when someone's coming from behind or ahead.

And please, no snide remarks about the State of the Scooter: it's a venerable, 17-year old greybeard that I'll just throw away in a few years when we leave the island, so replacing the ripped seat or even cleaning it (the HORROR!) or any other such cosmetic nonsense just ain't worth it.