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As behooves a region where counterfeiting is considered an art form, we not only have genuine Taiwan habus, but also fake ones. The False Habu (Macropisthodon rudis) tries hard to mimic the genuine article, but IMHO merely manages to create a cartoon version. Just look at those teddybear eyes and the cute little fat head ratcheting up the kawaii-ness factor!

OK, in all fairness, it's quite a sight to see him inflate his neck to create this chunky, triangular head, and it's also supposed to be not as harmless a species as people around these parts here usually believe: "Bryan G. Fry states on his website and forum that this is one of the Asian colubrids that has to be handled with great care, almost as an elapid even." (source).



























PS: Here's hoping the Taipei European School won't go all medieval on my keister for abusing their uniform in such heinous manner

Interesting. I wonder how the physical mechanics of head and neck spreading compare to other snakes that do the same sort of thing.

-Mike

I bet that pose doesn't make him very popular with the locals.

Any local who's ever seen a real habu immediately realizes that this one's a fake Plus, it's not a very widespread species.

I always wanted to find that species. You tend to find most of the Chinese wish list... Keep it up!

Awesome stuff. That snake has a primitive looking head. The scalation is very interesting and the eyes.

I've always thought this species was a Xenodontine, related to the hognose snakes. If so, they probably have enlarged rear fangs and some kind of toxicity. I wonder if they really bite, or are just bluffers, like Heterodon.

Regards...TC

According to Bryan Fry (see initial post), they do. However:


I have two friends who breed them, and they both claim that this is easily the sweetest snake you could imagine. No biting whatsoever.

Thanks for the additional info. That's an awesome species, not cute, but terribly interesting.

TC

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this species and the story behind it.

Reminds me of hognose snakes and the False Fer de Lance both of which also are venomous. I wonder why, since I would think that they wouldn't need the venom for defense as the bluff would scare off potential predators. Obviously in the case of the hognose which rarely bite, its venom is for food purposes but I think a hoggie could easily tackle a toad even without any venom. Basically I'm just wondering why these heavy bodied viper imitators have evolved venom. And more on topic great post a really cool snake that I only learned of for the first time in your post.

Speaking of toads - the False Habu specializes in them. As to why they have venom - if you can believe Dr. Bryan Fry, most "colubrids" have it to some degree, as far as I understand it.