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We tried a new cruising route last night and found a truly magical place - a "water wall" similar to the one described here, but about 100 yards long and crawling with animals: hundreds of anurans, two big Dinodon rufozonatum (one of them happily munching on a fat toad - my first feeding encounter!), dozens of huge crabs, a bunch of pretty stag beetles, and two Multi-banded Kraits (Bungarus multicinctus multicinctus), one rather young, the other about four feet. That one displayed the usual timid, slow krait behavior and tried to get away from us by slinking into the water, swimming a few yards and then climbing the wall in an eventually successful search for a hiding place.

The hideous purple disco effect in the last two shots probably comes about because I tried to photograph the wet wall head-on instead from an angle.....Any idea how to remove the glare spots? Thanks!

Very nice! I've always been interested in Kraits, wish to see one in the wild someday. Awesome snake! absolutely beautiful.

Wow, what great finds! Kraits are beautiful snakes. I will be interested to hear how others deal with wet situations since I usually have problems with glare.

Regards,
David

Most enjoyable. As you might recall, I have been waiting for a Krait photo and got a bunch. Thanks, Peter.

Beautiful snake. The scalation along the spine is interesting. Is that a feature unique to Kraits (Bungarus)? Also, what's up with the "water wall"...is that a place where snakes hang-out, like the green viper you posted? Makes for great photos.

Those are some cool snakes! It is good to see herps from other parts of the world. Thanks for sharing your great finds.

Ryan

that is incredible Hans. I am very envious. Keep it up!!

Thanks, guys! These wet walls are a common road- and trailside feature in mountainous areas here in Taiwan. It rains quite a bit here, and the mountains are steep, so these walls are put up (mostly from concrete) to stabilize the slopes, prevent landslides by erosion, and give all that water a controlled path to run. To achieve the latter, there are rows and rows of drainage pipes running from the back/inside of the wall to the front where the water runs down the wall into the road/trailside ditch. After heavy rains, these drainage pipes are very busy, but usually they just carry a trickle - just enough to keep the walls wet, but not too much, so the pipes and walls are always full of frogs which in turn attract snakes.

We're going back to this particular wet wall tonight and will walk its entire length. Can't wait to see what's on tonight

Kraits have become quite a common sight now; we spot them almost every night. Just over three weeks ago I met the first one in my life, and now I've already become so blasé about it that I only photograph the large ones in nice settings .

The day before yesterday we found a young one on the road with its guts hanging out, looking quite dead.....until we touched it with a long instrument. BAM! Instant resurrection and two very fast defense bites. I've been told that a lot of people here get bitten every year because they handle such "DOR" snakes. Another valuable lesson for my kids, to say the least!

monklet, what do you mean by "scalation" in this case?

I was referring to the mid-dorsal scales and that they appear distinct in shape, more plate like if you will.

Great post, Its awesome seeing all these snakes from the other side of the world. Keep up the good work!

Thanks, HA, and thank you, monklet, for elaborating. The dorsal plate thing never caught my attention - I'm too new to all this and still happy if I can tell head from tail However, a Google search showed that enlarged vertebral scales seem to be a recurring feature in the genus Bungarus. I wonder what they're good for?