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On our return from a not too exciting mountain cruise late last night we were driving along a narrow country blacktop when I spotted a gathering of people in the middle of the road ahead. Slowing down to see what the congregation was about, I realized I was looking at an entire family - Gramps, Grandma, Mom, Dad, and two boys in their late teens, most of them with arms akimbo, but talking animatedly. One of the boys was holding a three-foot wooden DIY pair of tongs, and at the end of those tongs, right there on the tarmac, like some fantastical outer-galactic pet on a leash, sat the biggest Multi-banded Krait (Bungarus multicinctus) I'd ever laid eyes upon - five feet easy.

I slammed the brakes, grabbed my own tongs and the camera, and dove out of the van, smack-dab into the middle of the flabbergasted farmers, yelling "WHATEVERYOUREPLANNINGTODOWITHITLETMETAKESOMEPICTURESFIRSTPLEASE!!!" from the top of my lungs. After they had recovered from the shock of a huge, agitated Westerner in sweaty khakis and a large headlamp suddenly jumping into their circle, it was Grandma who spoke first: "Not to worry! We was just fixin' to haul him up into the woods where he can live in peace without putting us at risk here in the paddies. We found him in the vegetable garden behind the house. We move all venomous snakes we find on our property up into the forest. No worries, we don't kill no snakes - they're good creatures, plus, most of them are protected. As they well should be!" Then the rest of the family chimed in: "Just look at him - isn't he a beauty?" "Biggest one I've seen in 20 years - must be real old!", etc.

Now it was my turn to deal with shock: I'm aware that many farming folk around here grudgingly admit to the ecological value of venomous snakes, but after my recent encounter with a drunk peasant telling me to kill the pitviper I was photographing, and a frustrating dialogue with another similarly opinioned neighbor a week later, my current level of hope had been at an all-time low. Thus, meeting three generations of a farming clan, all of them displaying such an extremely enlightened stance, was nothing short of mind-boggling and left me almost light-headed.

After congratulating them on their broad-mindedness, I asked if I could take over the snake with my own tongs and take a few pictures before they ferried it to safety. "Sure thing," they said, "be our guest! Actually, tell you what - howzabout taking him offa our hands? Here's a bag, whyn'cha sack'm and drive'm up the hill yourself?" Sadly, my experience with highly venomous reptiles writhing around in burlap sacks on the floor of my van is zero, and since both my sons were with me, I didn't reckon it to be the appropriate time to start practicing this arcane art, however rewarding it might be.

So I declined politely, but that left me in a pickle - these folks just wanted to remove the snake and call it a night, not hang around for another half hour until I'd played out the krait to an acceptable and photogenic fatigue level. As soon as I'd taken over the reptile with my own tongs, it started thrashing like a demon, and every attempt at changing or loosening my grip resulted in a fierce attempt for freedom. Tonging the snake and simultaneously taking pictures was out of the question, and my sons don't know how to handle my camera (Note to self - teach 'em already!) In the end, I had my ten-year old take over the tongs (1), while I snapped a few documentary shots to secure at least one or two halfway decent images of the magnificent serpent. After that, the two farm boys rode their scooter up the hill, snake dangling from the tongs held by the guy on the backseat (what a sight, and what a pity my flash malfunctioned when I tried to photograph their exit!), and came back 15 minutes later, empty-tonged. We stood around for another little while, chatting with the family - I sure owed them an explanation for my outlandish behavior - then went home, still full of adrenaline.

(1) That was definitely the other highlight of the night - seeing my son's face aglow with an improbable mixture of life-or-death concentration, shirt-bursting pride, and more than just a hint of considerable trepidation

Interesting tongs you got there. Be careful so you dont have two Kraits all of a sudden.

I was thinking the same thing...

awesome.

I am sure you are careful Hans, I understand the improvisation - awesome job. I am so jealous

Hans: It maybe worthwhile just to carry a couple of plastic pails with screw-on lids with drilled out airholes. Much safer way to contain venomous than just bagging them if you should encounter this type of situation again. Most people I know who relocate hots use the pails. No fang-through-the material accidents and in this case you can avoid a Slowinski because you can open a lid instead of blindly untying a bag. It can become part of your default snake handling kit.
Just a thought. Do you generally use hedge pruners instead of tongs?

Nice cal-king

Just kidding.



Yeah those look pretty rough for the snake

Either way, cool find!

They look like tree pruners to me!

Pretty snake! Isn't that the kind of snake that killed Slowinski?

Thanks for all the ideas! They're indeed hedge pruners.....modified ones, with thick, blunt, wavy-jagged, two-into-one blades instead of the original shearing blades. They're from Japan and made for emergency personnel and other people who just want to remove snakes, regardless of how the snakes feel like afterwards. They were the only ones available in Taiwan at the time, but after a little training (with household items and soft fruit, not live animals) you learn how use them safely. That said, I've just ordered a proper set of serpent-control gear from Midwest, so that chapter should be over soon

And yes, that's the Slowinksi killer.

The one that killed Slowinski was but a little tiny one. With this big bruiser it would be all over except for the prayin'. Neat pics!

PS: "Although it was still too dark to see well, Joe absentmindedly thrust his right hand into the sack to extract the speciman and have a look. Immediately, he winced with pain and yanked out his hand. A tiny black-and-white banded snake, less than ten inches long, was dangling limply from his middle finger, its fangs still sunk into his flesh." The Snake Charmer, 2008, Jamie James.

TC

Luckily, all hospitals and emergency rooms in the countryside here carry antivenin for B. multicinctus, Naja atra, Trimeresurus stejnegeri (Bamboo viper) and Protobothrops mucrosquamatus (Taiwan Habu). These are the four hots one's most likely to encounter up here in the North (in the South there's also Russell's Viper).

Unluckily, my children don't know how to drive me to said hospitals, so utmost caution is always first order of the day. We went on a little cruise last night and found quite a lot of snakes, among them a cobra (too fast for photos - FFFFFFFFFCK!!!!!), two habus, and two B. multicinctus, one of which we almost stepped on: we were searching along a roadside ditch, not paying attention to the road itself, when that krait crossed the road on his way to the ditch, almost between our feet.

Lesson learned.

Cobras and kraits while road cruising - SO LUCKY!!! i really want to get over there

what is the snake hunting like in the winter months? Specifically December?

Winter sucks. The best months are May/June, and August to October. November to February is Brumation City.

Roadcruising kraits is easy, by the way, but cobras are a whole 'nother deal - the one we saw last night was the first one I ever saw head to tail, and I herp pretty much every damn day. They're so smart and sensitive that it's almost impossible to see them when you're hiking. Kraits, habus, D. rufozonatum and all the other usual suspects just hang out along creeks and water-filled ditches and are relatively easy to spot, but to see cobras, you have only one realistic window of opportunity - road cruising between six and seven PM. That's how long dusk lasts over here, and that's when they're on the move. Frustrating, to say the least. The reason why I didn't get a picture of the naja was highly embarrassing: I saw the snake crossing the road in front of the van - a three-foot long, but really chunky, muscular body, black with thin white stripes - and didn't realize what the hell it WAS, because I've never really seen one in the open. The hood wasn't up, so my first thought was "loose pet python" (yes, we have those here, too). I got out of the car, tongs in hand, examined the moving snake from three feet away, and then finally saw the markings on the head. However, the realization that I'd FINALLY FOUND A LIVE COBRA AFTER ALL THOSE MONTHS OF OBSESSING!!!!!! was so breath-taking that my mind just blanked: I stood there frozen, gawping slack-jawed at the mirage, unable to react in any productive way, and thus the naja made an exit into the high grass by the road side.

Final tally:

Cobra: 1
Damn Fool: 0

I can easily understand the circumstances. Sucks that you didn't get a pic, but at least you got the experience of actually seeing a live one in the wild. Next thing we know you'll now be finding those left and right just like you're finding the kraits left and right nowadays.

I was hoping that since Taiwan is semi-tropical that maybe the winter months would still harbor some herps. Oh well...

I've been praying for that, too, but unless the najas are particularly active in fall, I'm afraid that won't happen.


Only the North is semi-tropical. The South is really tropical (the Tropic of Cancer runs through the middle of the island), and although it's only 200 miles from where I live, there's never any winter down there - beach temps and herping weather all year round. Plus, the snakes are bigger and meaner (Hundred-Pacers, Russell's Vipers, LARGE cobras....)

How far is it from your place to southern Taiwan? 3 hour drive? 4? No, I don't think so, but if the prospects of catching some elapids or any other species I haven't seen are good I would be more tempted. Plane tickets would be my limiting factor

200 miles in Taiwan means a day's drive. The roads are good, but winding and mountainous. The best way to see stuff in the South would be to take a week or so off and, armed with some info on herping grounds, go Bed&Breakfast-hopping in the countryside.