Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Moderator: Scott Waters
Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
After four weeks in Malaysia, I couldn't wait to get back to Thailand. I missed the people, the places and quite frankly how (comparatively) quickly I manage to find snakes. I was also very excited because Southern Thailand's 'Snake Season' was due to start, as was the beginning of the rainy season. I'm not actually sure there is really a 'snake season' in Thailand, but I think a lot of baby snakes are hatching out at this time, which may make it seem like the snakes are more active.
Anyway, it's been a hectic two months and I definitely should've made this post earlier, but I kept herping and the snakes kept piling up.
Keeping up with tradition, there might be one or two snakes in here that you've never seen on the forum before, so....enjoy!
(Amphoe Muang Trang, Trang, Thailand)
While I had been in Malaysia, my younger brother (13) had visited the UK and I hadn't seen him in over a month, we decided to do a little herping together.
It rained incessantly for about two days on my return, so when it finished just in time for nightfall, I was curious as to what would be out on the roads. For about thirty minutes, there was nothing but annoyingly fresh roadkill, but when we approached the airport loop road I shouted 'This is where we saw that fresh DOR Enhydris plumbea', literally a second after I said that, I saw a snake shoot out from the tall grass lining the road. Usually I would have pull over, grabbed a torch and detained the serpent, but I knew that the car following close behind us would run it over and, knowing quite well what the snake was, I couldn't let that happen; time to change tactics. Instead of pulling over, I simply slowed the bike down and reached down off the bike to literally pluck the snake of the tarmac, which, believe it or not, actually worked! The downside was that the surprised snake sunk six rows of teeth into my index finger, but who cares, I caught one of my target snakes for this year!
Plumbeus Water Snake (Enhydris plumbea) - *Lifer*:Trang Airport, Trang Province, Thailand.
Now, some of you are probably thinking 'What? Enhydris plumbea? a target snake? But it's one of South-East Asia's most common snakes!', well, maybe further north, but down in the tropical region they seem scarce, limited to certain still freshwater ponds. However, the real reason I was happy to find it was because it has some family ties. Indeed, we used to laugh about how hilariously ugly it was and one day I joked about how it kinda looks a bit like my brother; since then, we have always called it 'The Plumb, Finlay's twin'. I found it quite fitting that when I finally caught one, it was with Finlay.
Finlay, Thomas and I took it out to the airport the next day for photos, then decided to check out the area where it was caught.
The time (near christmas) where I saw a DOR at that spot, I scoured the area I thought it was crossing from but couldn't find any water or suitable habitat, this time though, we saw where it had actually been crossing from... Behind the fence to the airport, where, after climbing the fence, we found several ponds.
A couple nights later, after more heavy rain, I returned to that spot, climbed the fence and caught a neonate Enhydris plumbea, side-winding across the mud.
Plumbeus Water Snake (Enhydris plumbea) - neonate:Trang Airport, Trang Province, Thailand.
Habitat Enhydris plumbea, Trang Airport, Trang Province, Thailand:
My father and I also discovered a great spot in Trang for Boiga cyanea and found two on the first night there, I only photographed the blue lipped beauty, though.
Green Cat Snake (Boiga cyanea) - 1.2m specimen:Ratchamongkol, Trang Province, Thailand.
However, my favourite find from Ratchamongkol was a big purpureomaculatus, which looked a little like Crotalus atrox.
Mangrove Pit-Viper (Cryptelytrops purpureomaculatus) - *Lifer*:Ratchamongkol, Trang Province, Thailand.
In the Ratchamongkol mangroves:
The next trip my father, brother and I took was a quick three nighter, the first stop being Khao Pu Khao Ya National Park in Phattalung Province, where we found some Lycodon, big Mangrove Cat Snakes......and lifer natricines.
Red-Sided Keelback (Xenochrophis trianguligerus) - *Lifer*:Khao Pu Khao Ya National Park, Phattalung Province, Thailand.
We actually found two in one pond, a pond which I always visit, but had never seen snakes in before. My brother filmed the whole catching episode, which was quite a mess and I dropped one of my socks in the water. Eventually I grabbed it though - the snake, not the sock, I had a spare pair those.
Since this snake was a Xenochrophis, I was expecting the fury of the gods to be unleashed on the hand I grabbed it with, however, I was pleasantly surprised by how docile this pretty snake was.
You can see why I had to go wading to catch this one (in-situ):
The next stop was Nam Tok National Park, near the town of Thung Song, where we caught a couple Boiga cynodon, one neonate and one measuring an impressive ca. 220cm. In fact, I caught five boiga cynodon that week, pretty crazy. My favourite of the cynodon found that week was this true melanistic morph from the one night stay in Krabi, the last stop on our three day trip. I misidentified a very black and yellow specimen in my last post as melanistic, however, this one actually is.
Dog-Toothed Cat Snake (Boiga cynodon) - about 1.6m:Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, Krabi Province, Thailand.
I visited Khao Chong, in Trang Province, a few times in the off season but only found one snake on all those trips so kinda stopped going there. However, I had high hopes for what I might be able to find there in the good season. Sure enough, after about forty minutes walking, I saw a little snake active on a stout sapling. It actually took me a second to figure out what I found, I wasn't disappointed!
Malayan Bridle Snake (Dryocalamus subannulatus) - rare striped morph:Khao Chong, Trang Province, Thailand.
I also spent a night at a another spot which I had been waiting until the good season to walk. It was a nice trail, but we only found one snake.
White-Spotted Cat Snake (Boiga drapiezii) - orange morph:Prai Sawan, Trang Province, Thailand.
I've found a few drapiezii over the last couple months. You can never get tired of these as the coloration is always different. For a while, I thought this beautiful Boiga was drapiezii, but when I showed some Thai herpetologists the picture they got all excited and enlightened me to how brilliant this catch was!
Bengkulu Cat Snake (Boiga bengkuluensis):Khao Chong, Trang Province, Thailand.
I honestly didn't expect to have see this uncommon and unstudied species, so now I've seen 7/8 of Southern Thailand's Boiga
One of the reasons I like Khao Chong Research Station is because it's (apart from Chong Hill) not a hilly area! It's a lowland valley between Khao Chong and the big mountains of Khao Chet Yot, with very sandy soil. The area actually has an endemic snake, so I knew it was only a matter of time until I turned up something unusual.
Sure enough, I headed out the night after finding the pink-banded bengkuluensis and spotted a snake lying across the path, literally not even a meter from where I found the aforementioned Boiga. I even took some photos on the same branch I shot the drapiezii on!
Dusky Wolf Snake (Lycodon albofuscus) - *Lifer* :Khao Chong, Trang Province, Thailand.
Despite it's appearance and tail length, this snake is actually terrestrial and capable or making serious pace through the undergrowth. It is a Lycodon, though, so I would guess it is a great climber as well. Despite this, it still preferred to take off on the ground than in the bushes.
This was an extremely exciting find as I'm a huge fan of the genus Lycodon and honestly didn't expect to see this species in Thailand. So exciting in fact, that I took it up to Krabi the next day, where I had scheduled to meet my buddy Vern and Anders, a herper on holiday from Denmark.
The target for this particular trip was Lycodon subcintus, the last of Southern Thailand's Lycodon I have to see. We didn't turn up any on the first night, but I still got angry Mangrove Cat Snakes, Kraits and a little surprise.
Mangrove Cat Snake (Boiga dendrophila melanota) - almost as big as the one in Phattalung: Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort, Krabi Province, Thailand.
Malayan Krait (Bungarus candidus) - the most venomous snake in Southern Thailand:Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort, Krabi Province, Thailand.
Vern went home at about midnight and Anders headed to bed; this was irritating for me as I wasn't tired at all. Therefore, I opted to head back out and try and find something awesome I could brag about the next day.
Usually when we reach the top of the dammed stream we follow Vern's lead and head back. I always though the habitat looked great, though, so I thought 'Why not?'.
The habitat in the area I was checking out is very dense, spiky bamboo on a small, boulder strewn stream bank. There used to be a pathway through, but the bamboo had engulfed it. I still tried it and saw a small snake curled around a split in the bamboo, about 30cm off the ground. I knew Rhabdophis subminiatus often sleeps in trees, so I guessed it would just be a juvenile one. However, when I picked it up, I was very satisfied!
When I said 'little surprise', I meant it literally. Indeed, the snake was only about 25cm long. But that didn't take away from how awesome this find was!
Gongylosoma balodeirum, a rare and secretive snake with little information on it's distribution in Thailand. All I know is that one was found in Khao Soi Dao National Park, Chantaburi province and there are three subspecies, each poorly diagnosed. Which subspecies this belongs to, I'm not sure. Still, I texted vern and told him to come out the next day for a snake I doubt he or I will find again.
Orange-Bellied Ground Snake (Gongylosoma balodeirum) - *Lifer*:Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort, Krabi Province, Thailand.
This was also the first time in a while that a new snake had been found at the resort. Vern and I had thought that after ten years of herpers coming to that spot, pretty much everything there had been found at least once; obviously not the case.
The next day came around so I photographed the Gongylosoma with Vern and I did some day hiking with Anders. We didn't turn up much, just some lizards and an Ahaetulla prasina (which Anders was extremely happy with).
A shot from our hike, displaying the extremely lush and dense vegetation which keeps us from seeing the snakes that are all around our feet:
Sweaty man and snake:
That evening didn't yield much either, just a couple more Kraits, but seeing a tiny hatchling of Bungarus candidus was very cool, although we're a little unhappy that theres gonna be more of them eating up all the other snakes.
The next morning on the other hand, I was woken to 'Ruper', Ruper', come see the flying snake!'
In my opinion, being woken up to see a snake is the best wakeup possible, although all we could see of this one was a bit of it's face sticking out of a hole high up in a bungalow. Having just woken up, I wasn't hungry yet, so decided to take a stroll along the dammed stream during the day, something I don't do very often.
Near the top, I heard something rustle and turned to see a snake blasting up the hillside. Thinking it was Chrysopelea ornata, I dashed after it and made a grab for it's tail. Chrysopelea ornata would have been fine, but when the snake writhing and backflipping in my hand slowed a little, I couldn't believe my eyes!
Paradise Flying Snake (Chrysopelea paradisi) - *Lifer*:Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort, Krabi Province, Thailand.
I consider C. paradisi to be one of the most beautiful snakes in the world, even big adult specimens like this are gorgeous, plus it was another of the main targets I had for this year. I'm tickin' 'em off quick now!
It had been a couple years since the last one of these showed up at the resort, everyone was very happy to see it.Chup, literally the only Thai woman I have met who loves reptiles, particularly snakes. If you ask about it, she says she likes to go looking but never gets the time.
This snake lived up to it's name 'Flying Snake' by literally flying at my hand. If you pissed it off too much it would hiss, turn around and leap almost twice it's own body length. It was seriously unpredictable too, as in you could be holding it really chill, make a slightly sudden movement and it would flip out and attack your camera bag.
I relished in my success that day before hiring a moped and heading out to a nearby hill Vern told me about, a hill which has an extremely good quality road leading to the top of about 450m asl.
The weather looked daunting, but I braved it anyway, keeping in mind how many awesome snakes could be crossing while I'm sitting around at the resort.
It was about 20 minutes from the resort, then about 10-15 minutes to the top, where I turned up a sleeping Ahaetulla prasina, however, when I got back to cruising, a small banded snake appeared on the road. As nobody ever comes up this road, I just stopped the bike right in the middle and went for my torch. Since the bike headlights were kinda orange, I had thought the snake to be a common Lycodon laoensis, however, when I switched to my flashlight, I could see the bands were very white. I could tell what it was, but kept telling myself 'no way, no way, no way'.
Lycodon subcintus isn't a rare snake, but seeing the exact one you're looking for is a special occasion here in Thailand. Funnily enough, this was the third time I had come to Krabi with a target snake and the third time I have found that target snake.
White-Banded Wolf Snake (Lycodon subcintus) - juvenile and a *Lifer*:Khao Phanom Bencha, Krabi Province, Thailand.
I met up with Anders again and turned up another Krait at the resort that night, that's four now!
Despite how tired I was that evening, I still wanted to go with the plan and meet up with Vern at about 8am the next morning, as he was gonna take me to Tuk Kaap Hill, where he had seen snakes like Ptyas carinata and T. wagleri.
Vern wasn't really herping with me, he was doing a run to the top (500m asl.) and had left me at the bottom to hunt about for snakes. I didn't see any snakes during the hour and a half I spent there, but we did have a Monocled Cobra escape off the road when we drove in.
On the way back to the resort, though, I glimpsed a green snake shoot off the road. We jumped out anyway, just to see a second snake crossing the road towards us, which I promptly pounced on. Once I had, I literally lay down on the hard shoulder and shouted 'Yeeeeaaah!' I got one!!!!' while Vern just laughed at the facial expressions of the Thai people in the roadside restaurant we were outside of.
Chrysopelea ornata ornatissima is without a doubt Thailand's most common snake. it is found in every part of the country and can survive in the inner city areas of Bankok and pretty much any other town. It's a common resident of houses and I frequently have people from Trang tell me they saw a snake in their house which their description clearly identifies as a flying snake. However, somehow, I had not yet seen one. I'm not the kinda person who switches off when not herping - I'm always herping, no matter where I am, yet for some unknown reason I had only seen DORs and shed skins.
Ornate (Golden) Flying Snake (Chrysopelea ornata ornatissima) - *Lifer*:nr Krabi Town, Krabi Province, Thailand.
We bagged the snake to photograph at the resort, but as we pulled in Vern spotted a tiny Varanus bengalensis nebulosus in the parking area. He said 'Quick get it!', I knew I wouldn't, but a chase is always fun so I jumped out and ran, arms outstretch some some cheesy cartoon scene. The Monitor hit the trees in seconds and as I was looking up for it, I spotted the same Chrysopelea paradisi from yesterday, chillin' at a split in a branch.
Vern hadn't seen one in years, plus we wanted to check if it was the same specimen, so I went with a member of staff to the bungalow where they had last been using their long snake-catching-stick , only to see another, bigger, Ornate flyer on one of the walls. After grabbing that, we noticed yet another one up in the rafters!
If that wasn't enough, once we had bagged all the snakes Vern realised he had left his car keys somewhere. I suggested it might have been where we bagged the paradisi; it was, but so was another ornata!
I had somehow seen zero before, but now we get five within the space of half an hour!!!!
That wrapped up my time in Krabi, but the next day, while running some kind of shopping errand in my town, I spotted a small snake shooting across one of the busy roads near my house.
Luckily, I had a snake bag and my camera on me so I could take it out to the Botanical Gardens and release the little fellow.
Some 'non-herping' days passed with nothing but an accidental encounter with a Coelognathus radiata, but I didn't mind as I had another trip to Krabi planned with a young German herper called Moritz, currently working at an orphanage in Kapong, Phang Nga. Moritz told me he had less than a month left in Thailand so I tried really hard to make our trip idea come together, which it actually did!
Since Krabi is the state above mine and the state below his, I thought that would be a good spot to meet up, especially as I know the area well (guaranteed snakes).
I was especially excited about this trip because I had never herped with anyone this close to my own age before!
As Phanom Bencha Resort was booked out for the friday, we opted to stay the night at the other side of the hill, at Khao Phanom Bencha National Park.
Shortly after spotting a Ptyas korros scoot off the road, we grabbed some brunch at the canteen and headed straight out to hike the seven-layer waterfall. I wasn't expecting much to be active in the dreary weather, but I was pleasantly surprised by a brownish-yellow Ahaetulla prasina Moritz spotted in the bushes.
Oriental Vine Snake (Ahaetulla prasina:Khao Phanom Bencha National Park
That was one thing I loved about Moritz; he could actually spot snakes! When I go herping, I pretty much spot every snake, it was quite refreshing to have someone see some too. I must say my competitive side was surprised by this...
It's not often your walk to dinner is a beautiful as this...
Nightfall came and we headed out on the steep summit trail and must have got about to about 400 meters asl. before we realised our lack of water could become dangerous. We saw lots of cool Geckos, but nothing ophidian. This was already three hours of our night gone, but I have a theory that snakes are more active around streams at the later hours of night, so we snacked and headed out the the waterfall trail at 11pm.
Not even a minute in Moritz spotted a tiny Boiga dendrophila chilling in some vegetation, sweeping the 'no-snake-night' feeling right off our backs.
Mangrove Cat Snake (Boiga dendrophila melanota): Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, Krabi province, Thailand.
Things got considerably better very quickly, as when we reached the fifth layer of the waterfall I spotted another tiny Lycodon subcintus, this one chilling on the rocks.
However, the night definitely reached it's peak when we got to the top of waterfall and I saw a beautiful Ahaetulla fasciolata, sleeping on a branch above our heads.
Speckle-Headed Vine Snake (Ahaetulla fasciolata) - considered a 'rare' species:Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, Krabi Province, Thailand.
We had hiked vertical for three hours and seen nothing, then turn up three snakes within an hour of walking...typical tropical herping...
The next day we waved goodbye to the friendly park staff and caught a minivan over to the resort, where Vern was waiting patiently.
Example photos showing that Thais really need to get their priorities (and grammar) straight:
We arrived and went on a long daytime walk around the limestone hills and rubber plantations, where we were surprised to turn up a beautiful Paradise Flying Snake. Considered 'rare' in Thailand, yet this was the second I had found in less than two weeks!
Paradise Flying Snake (Chrysopelea paradisi) - adult:
We didn't head back out until nightfall, where the catches were one Malayan Pit-Viper, another brownish-yellow prasina, one more tiny Mangrove Cat Snake and my favourite, a Wolf Snake!
Island Wolf Snake (Lycodon capucintus):
I think I've said it before, but I'm a huge fan of the genus Lycodon but this was only the second encounter with the so called 'most common' member of the genus. Last time I got really bad photos, so I was pleased to get this pretty specimen with appropriate equipment and a friend on hand.
The friend got those wolf-teeth right in the arm, as did I, multiple times... [url=http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Ruper ... c.jpg.html]
The plan had been for Moritz to take the bus back to Kapong and my dad to turn up in the car and head on off to another national park or something with myself, however, Moritz had been mentioning a lot how good of a herping spot his little town of Kapong was and how many Cobras he had seen in the area and how we should totally come up and stay a night at his place. I'd been having such a blast herping with him, plus the temptation of an unexplored area with Wagler's Vipers was too much so I agreed and told my dad to head straight for Phang Gna.
We crossed some beautiful hills on the drive and I spotted one big, green Ahaetulla prasina crossing the road. Moritz was surprisingly happy with this catch as literally all the prasina he had seen before had been brown or yellow.
When I said he worked at an 'orphanage', you probably got the wrong idea. I did too, as when I turned up I was surprised how luxurious and modern the school and accommodation was. Still, it was right in the countryside and had beautiful views from it's perch on a hill.
Kapong habitat from the school canteen:
We spent the remaining hours of the afternoon sorting out the accommodation and getting dinner, before heading straight to the forest at 7:30pm.
I honestly didn't know what to expect. Moritz had been telling what a great area it was, yet hadn't had much success there himself. All my worries went away quickly because, as we began to walk a trail Mo' knew near a waterfall, Moritz-man himself spotted a rusty coloured Boiga drapiezii on the ground!
White-Spotted Cat Snake (Boiga drapiezii) - orange morph:nr Kapong, Phang Gna Province, Thailand.
Not even five minutes further down the trail, something caught my eye in some vegetation, far up the bank.
At first I though 'ooh snake', then second guessed it to be some plant material. I turned to carry on, then looked back, finally coming to terms that it was indeed a snake's ventral surface I could see.
We were both pretty excited about finding a snake and I threw 'sleeping Striped Bronzeback' into the mix of species suggestions, but we faced the problem of how we were gonna catch this mystery serpent from it's perch, five meters directly above us.
To help you understand our situation; our trail was cut into the side of a steep hillside with a drop on the left and a three meter high, vegetated bank on our right. The snake was resting in a bush (growing out of the bank) yet another two meters up. To make it worse the snake was in the part of the bush overhanging the bank. This wasn't going to be easy...
I quickly came to the conclusion that Mortitz needed to get up on the bank and tell me what snake it was. This was pretty easy; I found a less steep part, helped him climb it and guided him to where the snake was sleeping. What I didn't factor in was whether or not Moritz would know what species of snake it was when he saw it... Spoiler alert: he didn't. I had wanted Moritz to shake it down to me where I could detain the serpent, but I didn't fancy the idea of a venomous snake (although it didn't look like one) falling on my head.I was feeling quite sure it would be Boiga nigriceps but went up anyway to get a positive ID, however, my crashing through dense vegetation must have disturbed it as when I got near suddenly woke up and started moving, but not before I saw what it was!
Then it went bad. The snake suddenly lunged back across it's own body and disappeared from my view! Moritz called out 'It jumped, it jumped', and having seen what it was, no way was I gonna let this snake escape. I pretty much jumped right off the bank, but making sure I slid three meters threw extremely thorny jungle plants. However, when I got down, there was no snake! Suddenly, I spotted a it's pale venter as it stretched out to reach a branch of a tree and honestly thought all hope was lost, but no! It couldn't reach the branch and slumped back onto the bush!
In hindsight, it was bloody (literally) good luck I decided to jump down as I could see where the snake was while it was obscured from Moritz's view by plants. I was therefore able to verbally lead Moritz to it's location, but only hold my breath when he made a brave leap for it's tail!
Success! Five minutes of gentle untangling later, we had a very rare snake in our hands!
2.2 meters of illusiveness:
White-Bellied Ratsnake (Ptyas fuscus) - *lifer*:nr Kapong, Phang Gna Province, Thailand.
I honestly didn't expect to see this species in Thailand this year, but had often fantasised about finding it, so this was practically a dream come true. But that's not special as I could say the same thing about almost every other snake in the region...
But the night didn't end there! Indeed, while we were in the forest catching snakes, my father had gone to find a place to turn the car around and actually saw a snake slipping off the road. By his description and the habitat, I guessed Sunbeam Snake, but when Moritz and I checked out the waterlogged plantation where the snake went into, I saw one of those cool little Cylindrophis ruffus submerged in the water.
A little more hunting that night yielded a snake I had been itching to find ever since the first (and only) one I'd caught escaped from the bag:
Sunbeam Snake (Xenopeltis unicolor):nr Kapong, Phang Gna Province, Thailand.
Picture of myself, courtesy of Moritz Schwarzmann:
Three five snake days in a row, not bad at all.
Yet again, we had planned to leave the next day, but I loved Kapong and felt like more exploring needed to be done. Unfortunately, we got hardly any time during the day, but Moritz still came through and caught an awesome new snake for the both of us, right in the school grounds!
Since he had some work to do, we held it until night and photographed it then.
Black-Barred Keelback (Rhabdophis nigrocintus) - *Lifer*:Yaoawit School, Kapong, Phang Gna Province, Thailand.
What was especially cool about this pretty snake was that it was a species I can't find, two provinces south, in Trang!
After releasing the Keelback, we headed out to the same wet plantation we caught the Cylindrophis and caught another Sunbeam Snake! Funnily enough, my dad admitted this one was the exact shape, length and colour as what he saw crossing at that spot the night before.
Sunbeam Snake (Xenopeltis unicolor):nr Kapong, Phang Gna Province, Thailand.
The Kapong nightly fog rolled in after that and we didn't expect to much else in the following drizzle. Of course, we were pleasantly surprised...
White-Banded Wolf Snake (Lycodon subcintus) - adult:Kapong, Phang Gna, Thailand.
That really did wrap up my time with Moritz, although we both expect be back out herping the Asian jungles in the not too distant future.
The extremely popular Khao Sok National Park was just down the road from Kapong and, although I didn't like the over-controlling attitude of the park officials in these kind of areas, I hadn't herped here since I first came to Thailand so though I would give it a shot. Not surprisingly, it was raining as we arrived and carried on until the evening, when it slowed to a drizzle. Although, my father didn't want to go out, I still trudged off into the muddy, tiger infested forest alone. It felt good when I turned up two cool Pit-Vipers, one in reach of my tongs.
Pope's Pit-Viper (Popeia cf. fucata):Khao Sok National Park, Surat Thani Province, Thailand.
The reason I question it's identity is because I read, a while ago, that taxonomists were looking into reclassifying the Popeia fucata from lowland forests in Thailand to a new species, as fucata is a mid-hill to highland species. Whether this will still happen is a mystery to me.
One night of rain was enough so we decided to head over to the ever-pleasant, always productive Nai Plao Beach, Khanom District where we had that incredible ten snake night - to get the full story, read this http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... al#p195647. The highlights were definitely a big Monocled Cobra, a big Retic' and a stunning Cryptelytrops venustus.
Action-shot:
Monocled Cobra (Naja kauthia):Nai Plao, Nakhon si Thammerat Province, Thailand.
Beautiful Pit-Viper (Cryptelytrops venustus):Nai Plao, Nakhon si Thammerat Province, Thailand.
I took another trip to Khanom which yielded more venustus, Boiga cynodon and A. prasina but from about mid-june to the sixth of July I got practically no herping done at all! This doesn't mean I didn't see snakes, this is Thailand, but these were mostly surprise encounters around my town. Then the rain came and practically flooded the place.
However, on the sixth of July, the same day I'm typing this right now, I finally got a window of time and weather to hunt about the Trang Botany Gardens, where I heard Macropisthodon flaviceps was recently recorded! By the way, the Botany garden isn't really a Botany Garden like us westerners know, it's actually a small patch of preserved dry lowland and swamp forest.
As the snake I mentioned was found in the swamp forest, I decided to cut out the main forest and spend all my available time on and around the boardwalk.
Eventually I saw a snake, but not what I was after. That didn't matter though, as this rarely photographed, rarely seen swamp snake was just as good!
Malayan Brown Snake (Xenelaphis hexagonotus) - *Lifer* :Thung Khai Botany Garden, Trang Province, Thailand.
Measuring up at about 1.2 meters long, this snake was seen a few meters out in the muddy water and I had to go wading with my zoom lens attached to get pictures. I attempted a catch but as soon as I set foot in the pool occupied by the snake, it submerged and disappeared. Still, I was buzzing with excitement all day long,
Somehow, I don't think the excitement I feel will end today, as on the 8th I fly out to Malaysia for a week of what might be my last hardcore herping trip for a while. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this incredibly ophidiocentric post as much as I enjoyed making it and finding the amazing creatures which were featured.
I tried to make it less text-heavy than usual, but I have a feeling I may have failed. Also, if you're wondering, FHF glitched up the area right after the second Paradise Flying Snake so you can't see any text or pictures I inserted there. The finds for that night you can't see were one Malayan Pit-Viper, one brown Ahaetulla prasina, one juvenile Mangrove Cat Snake and a beautiful Lycodon capucintus.
For additional information and friendly chats, add me on facebook: Rupert G Lewis
And as always, cheers,
Rupert
Anyway, it's been a hectic two months and I definitely should've made this post earlier, but I kept herping and the snakes kept piling up.
Keeping up with tradition, there might be one or two snakes in here that you've never seen on the forum before, so....enjoy!
(Amphoe Muang Trang, Trang, Thailand)
While I had been in Malaysia, my younger brother (13) had visited the UK and I hadn't seen him in over a month, we decided to do a little herping together.
It rained incessantly for about two days on my return, so when it finished just in time for nightfall, I was curious as to what would be out on the roads. For about thirty minutes, there was nothing but annoyingly fresh roadkill, but when we approached the airport loop road I shouted 'This is where we saw that fresh DOR Enhydris plumbea', literally a second after I said that, I saw a snake shoot out from the tall grass lining the road. Usually I would have pull over, grabbed a torch and detained the serpent, but I knew that the car following close behind us would run it over and, knowing quite well what the snake was, I couldn't let that happen; time to change tactics. Instead of pulling over, I simply slowed the bike down and reached down off the bike to literally pluck the snake of the tarmac, which, believe it or not, actually worked! The downside was that the surprised snake sunk six rows of teeth into my index finger, but who cares, I caught one of my target snakes for this year!
Plumbeus Water Snake (Enhydris plumbea) - *Lifer*:Trang Airport, Trang Province, Thailand.
Now, some of you are probably thinking 'What? Enhydris plumbea? a target snake? But it's one of South-East Asia's most common snakes!', well, maybe further north, but down in the tropical region they seem scarce, limited to certain still freshwater ponds. However, the real reason I was happy to find it was because it has some family ties. Indeed, we used to laugh about how hilariously ugly it was and one day I joked about how it kinda looks a bit like my brother; since then, we have always called it 'The Plumb, Finlay's twin'. I found it quite fitting that when I finally caught one, it was with Finlay.
Finlay, Thomas and I took it out to the airport the next day for photos, then decided to check out the area where it was caught.
The time (near christmas) where I saw a DOR at that spot, I scoured the area I thought it was crossing from but couldn't find any water or suitable habitat, this time though, we saw where it had actually been crossing from... Behind the fence to the airport, where, after climbing the fence, we found several ponds.
A couple nights later, after more heavy rain, I returned to that spot, climbed the fence and caught a neonate Enhydris plumbea, side-winding across the mud.
Plumbeus Water Snake (Enhydris plumbea) - neonate:Trang Airport, Trang Province, Thailand.
Habitat Enhydris plumbea, Trang Airport, Trang Province, Thailand:
My father and I also discovered a great spot in Trang for Boiga cyanea and found two on the first night there, I only photographed the blue lipped beauty, though.
Green Cat Snake (Boiga cyanea) - 1.2m specimen:Ratchamongkol, Trang Province, Thailand.
However, my favourite find from Ratchamongkol was a big purpureomaculatus, which looked a little like Crotalus atrox.
Mangrove Pit-Viper (Cryptelytrops purpureomaculatus) - *Lifer*:Ratchamongkol, Trang Province, Thailand.
In the Ratchamongkol mangroves:
The next trip my father, brother and I took was a quick three nighter, the first stop being Khao Pu Khao Ya National Park in Phattalung Province, where we found some Lycodon, big Mangrove Cat Snakes......and lifer natricines.
Red-Sided Keelback (Xenochrophis trianguligerus) - *Lifer*:Khao Pu Khao Ya National Park, Phattalung Province, Thailand.
We actually found two in one pond, a pond which I always visit, but had never seen snakes in before. My brother filmed the whole catching episode, which was quite a mess and I dropped one of my socks in the water. Eventually I grabbed it though - the snake, not the sock, I had a spare pair those.
Since this snake was a Xenochrophis, I was expecting the fury of the gods to be unleashed on the hand I grabbed it with, however, I was pleasantly surprised by how docile this pretty snake was.
You can see why I had to go wading to catch this one (in-situ):
The next stop was Nam Tok National Park, near the town of Thung Song, where we caught a couple Boiga cynodon, one neonate and one measuring an impressive ca. 220cm. In fact, I caught five boiga cynodon that week, pretty crazy. My favourite of the cynodon found that week was this true melanistic morph from the one night stay in Krabi, the last stop on our three day trip. I misidentified a very black and yellow specimen in my last post as melanistic, however, this one actually is.
Dog-Toothed Cat Snake (Boiga cynodon) - about 1.6m:Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, Krabi Province, Thailand.
I visited Khao Chong, in Trang Province, a few times in the off season but only found one snake on all those trips so kinda stopped going there. However, I had high hopes for what I might be able to find there in the good season. Sure enough, after about forty minutes walking, I saw a little snake active on a stout sapling. It actually took me a second to figure out what I found, I wasn't disappointed!
Malayan Bridle Snake (Dryocalamus subannulatus) - rare striped morph:Khao Chong, Trang Province, Thailand.
I also spent a night at a another spot which I had been waiting until the good season to walk. It was a nice trail, but we only found one snake.
White-Spotted Cat Snake (Boiga drapiezii) - orange morph:Prai Sawan, Trang Province, Thailand.
I've found a few drapiezii over the last couple months. You can never get tired of these as the coloration is always different. For a while, I thought this beautiful Boiga was drapiezii, but when I showed some Thai herpetologists the picture they got all excited and enlightened me to how brilliant this catch was!
Bengkulu Cat Snake (Boiga bengkuluensis):Khao Chong, Trang Province, Thailand.
I honestly didn't expect to have see this uncommon and unstudied species, so now I've seen 7/8 of Southern Thailand's Boiga
One of the reasons I like Khao Chong Research Station is because it's (apart from Chong Hill) not a hilly area! It's a lowland valley between Khao Chong and the big mountains of Khao Chet Yot, with very sandy soil. The area actually has an endemic snake, so I knew it was only a matter of time until I turned up something unusual.
Sure enough, I headed out the night after finding the pink-banded bengkuluensis and spotted a snake lying across the path, literally not even a meter from where I found the aforementioned Boiga. I even took some photos on the same branch I shot the drapiezii on!
Dusky Wolf Snake (Lycodon albofuscus) - *Lifer* :Khao Chong, Trang Province, Thailand.
Despite it's appearance and tail length, this snake is actually terrestrial and capable or making serious pace through the undergrowth. It is a Lycodon, though, so I would guess it is a great climber as well. Despite this, it still preferred to take off on the ground than in the bushes.
This was an extremely exciting find as I'm a huge fan of the genus Lycodon and honestly didn't expect to see this species in Thailand. So exciting in fact, that I took it up to Krabi the next day, where I had scheduled to meet my buddy Vern and Anders, a herper on holiday from Denmark.
The target for this particular trip was Lycodon subcintus, the last of Southern Thailand's Lycodon I have to see. We didn't turn up any on the first night, but I still got angry Mangrove Cat Snakes, Kraits and a little surprise.
Mangrove Cat Snake (Boiga dendrophila melanota) - almost as big as the one in Phattalung: Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort, Krabi Province, Thailand.
Malayan Krait (Bungarus candidus) - the most venomous snake in Southern Thailand:Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort, Krabi Province, Thailand.
Vern went home at about midnight and Anders headed to bed; this was irritating for me as I wasn't tired at all. Therefore, I opted to head back out and try and find something awesome I could brag about the next day.
Usually when we reach the top of the dammed stream we follow Vern's lead and head back. I always though the habitat looked great, though, so I thought 'Why not?'.
The habitat in the area I was checking out is very dense, spiky bamboo on a small, boulder strewn stream bank. There used to be a pathway through, but the bamboo had engulfed it. I still tried it and saw a small snake curled around a split in the bamboo, about 30cm off the ground. I knew Rhabdophis subminiatus often sleeps in trees, so I guessed it would just be a juvenile one. However, when I picked it up, I was very satisfied!
When I said 'little surprise', I meant it literally. Indeed, the snake was only about 25cm long. But that didn't take away from how awesome this find was!
Gongylosoma balodeirum, a rare and secretive snake with little information on it's distribution in Thailand. All I know is that one was found in Khao Soi Dao National Park, Chantaburi province and there are three subspecies, each poorly diagnosed. Which subspecies this belongs to, I'm not sure. Still, I texted vern and told him to come out the next day for a snake I doubt he or I will find again.
Orange-Bellied Ground Snake (Gongylosoma balodeirum) - *Lifer*:Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort, Krabi Province, Thailand.
This was also the first time in a while that a new snake had been found at the resort. Vern and I had thought that after ten years of herpers coming to that spot, pretty much everything there had been found at least once; obviously not the case.
The next day came around so I photographed the Gongylosoma with Vern and I did some day hiking with Anders. We didn't turn up much, just some lizards and an Ahaetulla prasina (which Anders was extremely happy with).
A shot from our hike, displaying the extremely lush and dense vegetation which keeps us from seeing the snakes that are all around our feet:
Sweaty man and snake:
That evening didn't yield much either, just a couple more Kraits, but seeing a tiny hatchling of Bungarus candidus was very cool, although we're a little unhappy that theres gonna be more of them eating up all the other snakes.
The next morning on the other hand, I was woken to 'Ruper', Ruper', come see the flying snake!'
In my opinion, being woken up to see a snake is the best wakeup possible, although all we could see of this one was a bit of it's face sticking out of a hole high up in a bungalow. Having just woken up, I wasn't hungry yet, so decided to take a stroll along the dammed stream during the day, something I don't do very often.
Near the top, I heard something rustle and turned to see a snake blasting up the hillside. Thinking it was Chrysopelea ornata, I dashed after it and made a grab for it's tail. Chrysopelea ornata would have been fine, but when the snake writhing and backflipping in my hand slowed a little, I couldn't believe my eyes!
Paradise Flying Snake (Chrysopelea paradisi) - *Lifer*:Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort, Krabi Province, Thailand.
I consider C. paradisi to be one of the most beautiful snakes in the world, even big adult specimens like this are gorgeous, plus it was another of the main targets I had for this year. I'm tickin' 'em off quick now!
It had been a couple years since the last one of these showed up at the resort, everyone was very happy to see it.Chup, literally the only Thai woman I have met who loves reptiles, particularly snakes. If you ask about it, she says she likes to go looking but never gets the time.
This snake lived up to it's name 'Flying Snake' by literally flying at my hand. If you pissed it off too much it would hiss, turn around and leap almost twice it's own body length. It was seriously unpredictable too, as in you could be holding it really chill, make a slightly sudden movement and it would flip out and attack your camera bag.
I relished in my success that day before hiring a moped and heading out to a nearby hill Vern told me about, a hill which has an extremely good quality road leading to the top of about 450m asl.
The weather looked daunting, but I braved it anyway, keeping in mind how many awesome snakes could be crossing while I'm sitting around at the resort.
It was about 20 minutes from the resort, then about 10-15 minutes to the top, where I turned up a sleeping Ahaetulla prasina, however, when I got back to cruising, a small banded snake appeared on the road. As nobody ever comes up this road, I just stopped the bike right in the middle and went for my torch. Since the bike headlights were kinda orange, I had thought the snake to be a common Lycodon laoensis, however, when I switched to my flashlight, I could see the bands were very white. I could tell what it was, but kept telling myself 'no way, no way, no way'.
Lycodon subcintus isn't a rare snake, but seeing the exact one you're looking for is a special occasion here in Thailand. Funnily enough, this was the third time I had come to Krabi with a target snake and the third time I have found that target snake.
White-Banded Wolf Snake (Lycodon subcintus) - juvenile and a *Lifer*:Khao Phanom Bencha, Krabi Province, Thailand.
I met up with Anders again and turned up another Krait at the resort that night, that's four now!
Despite how tired I was that evening, I still wanted to go with the plan and meet up with Vern at about 8am the next morning, as he was gonna take me to Tuk Kaap Hill, where he had seen snakes like Ptyas carinata and T. wagleri.
Vern wasn't really herping with me, he was doing a run to the top (500m asl.) and had left me at the bottom to hunt about for snakes. I didn't see any snakes during the hour and a half I spent there, but we did have a Monocled Cobra escape off the road when we drove in.
On the way back to the resort, though, I glimpsed a green snake shoot off the road. We jumped out anyway, just to see a second snake crossing the road towards us, which I promptly pounced on. Once I had, I literally lay down on the hard shoulder and shouted 'Yeeeeaaah!' I got one!!!!' while Vern just laughed at the facial expressions of the Thai people in the roadside restaurant we were outside of.
Chrysopelea ornata ornatissima is without a doubt Thailand's most common snake. it is found in every part of the country and can survive in the inner city areas of Bankok and pretty much any other town. It's a common resident of houses and I frequently have people from Trang tell me they saw a snake in their house which their description clearly identifies as a flying snake. However, somehow, I had not yet seen one. I'm not the kinda person who switches off when not herping - I'm always herping, no matter where I am, yet for some unknown reason I had only seen DORs and shed skins.
Ornate (Golden) Flying Snake (Chrysopelea ornata ornatissima) - *Lifer*:nr Krabi Town, Krabi Province, Thailand.
We bagged the snake to photograph at the resort, but as we pulled in Vern spotted a tiny Varanus bengalensis nebulosus in the parking area. He said 'Quick get it!', I knew I wouldn't, but a chase is always fun so I jumped out and ran, arms outstretch some some cheesy cartoon scene. The Monitor hit the trees in seconds and as I was looking up for it, I spotted the same Chrysopelea paradisi from yesterday, chillin' at a split in a branch.
Vern hadn't seen one in years, plus we wanted to check if it was the same specimen, so I went with a member of staff to the bungalow where they had last been using their long snake-catching-stick , only to see another, bigger, Ornate flyer on one of the walls. After grabbing that, we noticed yet another one up in the rafters!
If that wasn't enough, once we had bagged all the snakes Vern realised he had left his car keys somewhere. I suggested it might have been where we bagged the paradisi; it was, but so was another ornata!
I had somehow seen zero before, but now we get five within the space of half an hour!!!!
That wrapped up my time in Krabi, but the next day, while running some kind of shopping errand in my town, I spotted a small snake shooting across one of the busy roads near my house.
Luckily, I had a snake bag and my camera on me so I could take it out to the Botanical Gardens and release the little fellow.
Some 'non-herping' days passed with nothing but an accidental encounter with a Coelognathus radiata, but I didn't mind as I had another trip to Krabi planned with a young German herper called Moritz, currently working at an orphanage in Kapong, Phang Nga. Moritz told me he had less than a month left in Thailand so I tried really hard to make our trip idea come together, which it actually did!
Since Krabi is the state above mine and the state below his, I thought that would be a good spot to meet up, especially as I know the area well (guaranteed snakes).
I was especially excited about this trip because I had never herped with anyone this close to my own age before!
As Phanom Bencha Resort was booked out for the friday, we opted to stay the night at the other side of the hill, at Khao Phanom Bencha National Park.
Shortly after spotting a Ptyas korros scoot off the road, we grabbed some brunch at the canteen and headed straight out to hike the seven-layer waterfall. I wasn't expecting much to be active in the dreary weather, but I was pleasantly surprised by a brownish-yellow Ahaetulla prasina Moritz spotted in the bushes.
Oriental Vine Snake (Ahaetulla prasina:Khao Phanom Bencha National Park
That was one thing I loved about Moritz; he could actually spot snakes! When I go herping, I pretty much spot every snake, it was quite refreshing to have someone see some too. I must say my competitive side was surprised by this...
It's not often your walk to dinner is a beautiful as this...
Nightfall came and we headed out on the steep summit trail and must have got about to about 400 meters asl. before we realised our lack of water could become dangerous. We saw lots of cool Geckos, but nothing ophidian. This was already three hours of our night gone, but I have a theory that snakes are more active around streams at the later hours of night, so we snacked and headed out the the waterfall trail at 11pm.
Not even a minute in Moritz spotted a tiny Boiga dendrophila chilling in some vegetation, sweeping the 'no-snake-night' feeling right off our backs.
Mangrove Cat Snake (Boiga dendrophila melanota): Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, Krabi province, Thailand.
Things got considerably better very quickly, as when we reached the fifth layer of the waterfall I spotted another tiny Lycodon subcintus, this one chilling on the rocks.
However, the night definitely reached it's peak when we got to the top of waterfall and I saw a beautiful Ahaetulla fasciolata, sleeping on a branch above our heads.
Speckle-Headed Vine Snake (Ahaetulla fasciolata) - considered a 'rare' species:Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, Krabi Province, Thailand.
We had hiked vertical for three hours and seen nothing, then turn up three snakes within an hour of walking...typical tropical herping...
The next day we waved goodbye to the friendly park staff and caught a minivan over to the resort, where Vern was waiting patiently.
Example photos showing that Thais really need to get their priorities (and grammar) straight:
We arrived and went on a long daytime walk around the limestone hills and rubber plantations, where we were surprised to turn up a beautiful Paradise Flying Snake. Considered 'rare' in Thailand, yet this was the second I had found in less than two weeks!
Paradise Flying Snake (Chrysopelea paradisi) - adult:
We didn't head back out until nightfall, where the catches were one Malayan Pit-Viper, another brownish-yellow prasina, one more tiny Mangrove Cat Snake and my favourite, a Wolf Snake!
Island Wolf Snake (Lycodon capucintus):
I think I've said it before, but I'm a huge fan of the genus Lycodon but this was only the second encounter with the so called 'most common' member of the genus. Last time I got really bad photos, so I was pleased to get this pretty specimen with appropriate equipment and a friend on hand.
The friend got those wolf-teeth right in the arm, as did I, multiple times... [url=http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Ruper ... c.jpg.html]
The plan had been for Moritz to take the bus back to Kapong and my dad to turn up in the car and head on off to another national park or something with myself, however, Moritz had been mentioning a lot how good of a herping spot his little town of Kapong was and how many Cobras he had seen in the area and how we should totally come up and stay a night at his place. I'd been having such a blast herping with him, plus the temptation of an unexplored area with Wagler's Vipers was too much so I agreed and told my dad to head straight for Phang Gna.
We crossed some beautiful hills on the drive and I spotted one big, green Ahaetulla prasina crossing the road. Moritz was surprisingly happy with this catch as literally all the prasina he had seen before had been brown or yellow.
When I said he worked at an 'orphanage', you probably got the wrong idea. I did too, as when I turned up I was surprised how luxurious and modern the school and accommodation was. Still, it was right in the countryside and had beautiful views from it's perch on a hill.
Kapong habitat from the school canteen:
We spent the remaining hours of the afternoon sorting out the accommodation and getting dinner, before heading straight to the forest at 7:30pm.
I honestly didn't know what to expect. Moritz had been telling what a great area it was, yet hadn't had much success there himself. All my worries went away quickly because, as we began to walk a trail Mo' knew near a waterfall, Moritz-man himself spotted a rusty coloured Boiga drapiezii on the ground!
White-Spotted Cat Snake (Boiga drapiezii) - orange morph:nr Kapong, Phang Gna Province, Thailand.
Not even five minutes further down the trail, something caught my eye in some vegetation, far up the bank.
At first I though 'ooh snake', then second guessed it to be some plant material. I turned to carry on, then looked back, finally coming to terms that it was indeed a snake's ventral surface I could see.
We were both pretty excited about finding a snake and I threw 'sleeping Striped Bronzeback' into the mix of species suggestions, but we faced the problem of how we were gonna catch this mystery serpent from it's perch, five meters directly above us.
To help you understand our situation; our trail was cut into the side of a steep hillside with a drop on the left and a three meter high, vegetated bank on our right. The snake was resting in a bush (growing out of the bank) yet another two meters up. To make it worse the snake was in the part of the bush overhanging the bank. This wasn't going to be easy...
I quickly came to the conclusion that Mortitz needed to get up on the bank and tell me what snake it was. This was pretty easy; I found a less steep part, helped him climb it and guided him to where the snake was sleeping. What I didn't factor in was whether or not Moritz would know what species of snake it was when he saw it... Spoiler alert: he didn't. I had wanted Moritz to shake it down to me where I could detain the serpent, but I didn't fancy the idea of a venomous snake (although it didn't look like one) falling on my head.I was feeling quite sure it would be Boiga nigriceps but went up anyway to get a positive ID, however, my crashing through dense vegetation must have disturbed it as when I got near suddenly woke up and started moving, but not before I saw what it was!
Then it went bad. The snake suddenly lunged back across it's own body and disappeared from my view! Moritz called out 'It jumped, it jumped', and having seen what it was, no way was I gonna let this snake escape. I pretty much jumped right off the bank, but making sure I slid three meters threw extremely thorny jungle plants. However, when I got down, there was no snake! Suddenly, I spotted a it's pale venter as it stretched out to reach a branch of a tree and honestly thought all hope was lost, but no! It couldn't reach the branch and slumped back onto the bush!
In hindsight, it was bloody (literally) good luck I decided to jump down as I could see where the snake was while it was obscured from Moritz's view by plants. I was therefore able to verbally lead Moritz to it's location, but only hold my breath when he made a brave leap for it's tail!
Success! Five minutes of gentle untangling later, we had a very rare snake in our hands!
2.2 meters of illusiveness:
White-Bellied Ratsnake (Ptyas fuscus) - *lifer*:nr Kapong, Phang Gna Province, Thailand.
I honestly didn't expect to see this species in Thailand this year, but had often fantasised about finding it, so this was practically a dream come true. But that's not special as I could say the same thing about almost every other snake in the region...
But the night didn't end there! Indeed, while we were in the forest catching snakes, my father had gone to find a place to turn the car around and actually saw a snake slipping off the road. By his description and the habitat, I guessed Sunbeam Snake, but when Moritz and I checked out the waterlogged plantation where the snake went into, I saw one of those cool little Cylindrophis ruffus submerged in the water.
A little more hunting that night yielded a snake I had been itching to find ever since the first (and only) one I'd caught escaped from the bag:
Sunbeam Snake (Xenopeltis unicolor):nr Kapong, Phang Gna Province, Thailand.
Picture of myself, courtesy of Moritz Schwarzmann:
Three five snake days in a row, not bad at all.
Yet again, we had planned to leave the next day, but I loved Kapong and felt like more exploring needed to be done. Unfortunately, we got hardly any time during the day, but Moritz still came through and caught an awesome new snake for the both of us, right in the school grounds!
Since he had some work to do, we held it until night and photographed it then.
Black-Barred Keelback (Rhabdophis nigrocintus) - *Lifer*:Yaoawit School, Kapong, Phang Gna Province, Thailand.
What was especially cool about this pretty snake was that it was a species I can't find, two provinces south, in Trang!
After releasing the Keelback, we headed out to the same wet plantation we caught the Cylindrophis and caught another Sunbeam Snake! Funnily enough, my dad admitted this one was the exact shape, length and colour as what he saw crossing at that spot the night before.
Sunbeam Snake (Xenopeltis unicolor):nr Kapong, Phang Gna Province, Thailand.
The Kapong nightly fog rolled in after that and we didn't expect to much else in the following drizzle. Of course, we were pleasantly surprised...
White-Banded Wolf Snake (Lycodon subcintus) - adult:Kapong, Phang Gna, Thailand.
That really did wrap up my time with Moritz, although we both expect be back out herping the Asian jungles in the not too distant future.
The extremely popular Khao Sok National Park was just down the road from Kapong and, although I didn't like the over-controlling attitude of the park officials in these kind of areas, I hadn't herped here since I first came to Thailand so though I would give it a shot. Not surprisingly, it was raining as we arrived and carried on until the evening, when it slowed to a drizzle. Although, my father didn't want to go out, I still trudged off into the muddy, tiger infested forest alone. It felt good when I turned up two cool Pit-Vipers, one in reach of my tongs.
Pope's Pit-Viper (Popeia cf. fucata):Khao Sok National Park, Surat Thani Province, Thailand.
The reason I question it's identity is because I read, a while ago, that taxonomists were looking into reclassifying the Popeia fucata from lowland forests in Thailand to a new species, as fucata is a mid-hill to highland species. Whether this will still happen is a mystery to me.
One night of rain was enough so we decided to head over to the ever-pleasant, always productive Nai Plao Beach, Khanom District where we had that incredible ten snake night - to get the full story, read this http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... al#p195647. The highlights were definitely a big Monocled Cobra, a big Retic' and a stunning Cryptelytrops venustus.
Action-shot:
Monocled Cobra (Naja kauthia):Nai Plao, Nakhon si Thammerat Province, Thailand.
Beautiful Pit-Viper (Cryptelytrops venustus):Nai Plao, Nakhon si Thammerat Province, Thailand.
I took another trip to Khanom which yielded more venustus, Boiga cynodon and A. prasina but from about mid-june to the sixth of July I got practically no herping done at all! This doesn't mean I didn't see snakes, this is Thailand, but these were mostly surprise encounters around my town. Then the rain came and practically flooded the place.
However, on the sixth of July, the same day I'm typing this right now, I finally got a window of time and weather to hunt about the Trang Botany Gardens, where I heard Macropisthodon flaviceps was recently recorded! By the way, the Botany garden isn't really a Botany Garden like us westerners know, it's actually a small patch of preserved dry lowland and swamp forest.
As the snake I mentioned was found in the swamp forest, I decided to cut out the main forest and spend all my available time on and around the boardwalk.
Eventually I saw a snake, but not what I was after. That didn't matter though, as this rarely photographed, rarely seen swamp snake was just as good!
Malayan Brown Snake (Xenelaphis hexagonotus) - *Lifer* :Thung Khai Botany Garden, Trang Province, Thailand.
Measuring up at about 1.2 meters long, this snake was seen a few meters out in the muddy water and I had to go wading with my zoom lens attached to get pictures. I attempted a catch but as soon as I set foot in the pool occupied by the snake, it submerged and disappeared. Still, I was buzzing with excitement all day long,
Somehow, I don't think the excitement I feel will end today, as on the 8th I fly out to Malaysia for a week of what might be my last hardcore herping trip for a while. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this incredibly ophidiocentric post as much as I enjoyed making it and finding the amazing creatures which were featured.
I tried to make it less text-heavy than usual, but I have a feeling I may have failed. Also, if you're wondering, FHF glitched up the area right after the second Paradise Flying Snake so you can't see any text or pictures I inserted there. The finds for that night you can't see were one Malayan Pit-Viper, one brown Ahaetulla prasina, one juvenile Mangrove Cat Snake and a beautiful Lycodon capucintus.
For additional information and friendly chats, add me on facebook: Rupert G Lewis
And as always, cheers,
Rupert
- Martti Niskanen
- Posts: 363
- Joined: June 11th, 2010, 11:19 am
- Location: Helsinki, Finland
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Nice stuff again, Rupert.
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Stunning post, snakes, write-up, everything! I cant believe you hadnt seen Chrysopelea ornata ornatissima previously - I would say I average 2 a day (herping or otherwise) every single day I spend in Koh Tao.
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Excellent post Rupert! Some great photography as well - I love the shot of the A. fasciolata!
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Thanks guys!
Yes Kris, it really was ridiculous.
Yes Kris, it really was ridiculous.
- Hans Breuer (twoton)
- Posts: 3230
- Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
- Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
- Contact:
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Very impressive, Rupert. Your photography is also getting much better (I might have said that before, but now it's time to say it again). Special kudos for the P. fusca. I've yet to see one...
- fickle-minder
- Posts: 100
- Joined: July 17th, 2012, 5:47 am
- Location: Singapore
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Great post as always, Rupert! I'll die a happy man if I encountered so many lifers in such a short period of time!
Love the keelbacks, and the Boigas too! Really jealous about the Boiga diversity in Thailand. P.fuscus must have been a pretty sweet find! Love the stratergy behind the capture!
Hope you enjoy your trip to Malaysia! Wishing you a productive trip ahead! Hoping to see your post soon!
Love the keelbacks, and the Boigas too! Really jealous about the Boiga diversity in Thailand. P.fuscus must have been a pretty sweet find! Love the stratergy behind the capture!
Hope you enjoy your trip to Malaysia! Wishing you a productive trip ahead! Hoping to see your post soon!
- peterknuteberg
- Posts: 191
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- Location: Chicago, Illinois
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Cool post. Thailand looks amazing.
- regalringneck
- Posts: 563
- Joined: June 7th, 2010, 6:20 am
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
.... what is the expression; ko-blighe mate or something similar :p
fantastic glimpse into the asian tropics, ill return to review your narrative, but your camera work & location is 1st class. Again thnx for taking the time to post your adventures & the rules you must decipher!
fantastic glimpse into the asian tropics, ill return to review your narrative, but your camera work & location is 1st class. Again thnx for taking the time to post your adventures & the rules you must decipher!
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Nice finds!
Some very different species than what I'm seeing up north.
Some very different species than what I'm seeing up north.
- Bostaff of Asclepius
- Posts: 43
- Joined: January 29th, 2013, 9:21 am
- Location: Central Coast of California
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Great narration, phenomenal photos and fascinating species, thanks for sharing! I am particular to the Xenopeltis, it is one of my favorite spp. of snake. I was visiting a friend's farm in Siem Reap, Cambodia and her brother brought me about a 4 inch hunk of the middle third portion of a snake that was slayed not more than 2 hours before our arrival. It was.....you guessed it, a sun beam snake!
- IllinoisGuy
- Posts: 55
- Joined: June 14th, 2013, 2:17 pm
- Location: St. Louis
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Incredible stuff here, those sunbeam snakes are amazing.
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
'cor-blimey mate'?regalringneck wrote:.... what is the expression; ko-blighe mate or something similar :p
Yeah, the Xenopeltis are amazing snakes to hold and look at.
Thanks guys.
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Thanks for the awesome post! I love all "things" Thai !!!
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- Location: Wales
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Beautiful habitat and species selection
- Kevin Messenger
- Posts: 536
- Joined: June 7th, 2010, 3:00 pm
- Location: Nanjing, China
- Contact:
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
man, probably my favorite post of yours so far. Super jealous of all of the Boiga! and all the awesome vipers. Really good shots
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Thanks Kevin, Southern Thailand is an exceptional place for finding Boiga. It has a higher concentration of Boiga species than anywhere else in Asia.
- Rich in Reptiles
- Posts: 494
- Joined: November 30th, 2012, 7:45 am
- Location: Missouri
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Incredible post, i enjoyed the storyline as much as the photos. It was cool all the times you thought it was one species, but turned out to be something even better! Congrats on all your goal and lifer species.
I appreciate that you enter both the scientific name and the common name, that helps folks like me actually learn something without going to google to get the common name .
I appreciate that you enter both the scientific name and the common name, that helps folks like me actually learn something without going to google to get the common name .
- Hans Breuer (twoton)
- Posts: 3230
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- Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
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Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
At the risk of doing a Cato the Elder here ("Carthaginem esse delendam, dammit!"), repeating my agenda until everyone hates me: common names are a slippery slope. Unless it's a high-profile animal such as a cottonmouth or a king cobra, common names may vary even from county to county, and once you get down to animals in countries where no one speaks English, you can forget about common names. The most common nocturnal snake in Taiwan, Dinodon rufozonatum, has no English common name at all. Of the 169 known snakes in Borneo, only a tenth or so have recognizable common names. I suggest you learn the scientific names as early as possible, because no matter your path in herping/herpetoculture, you will eventually deal mostly with animals that no one but herpetologists have ever heard of...Rich in Reptiles wrote:I appreciate that you enter both the scientific name and the common name, that helps folks like me actually learn something without going to google to get the common name .
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
And I appreciate that you noticed. I lurked here for a long while and, because of that, have always tried to make my posts how I wish other people would have made theirs. Y'know, with the location, habitat, method of capture and scientific names as well as the common, for the exact reason you mentioned.Rich in Reptiles wrote: I appreciate that you enter both the scientific name and the common name, that helps folks like me actually learn something without going to google to get the common name .
- Rich in Reptiles
- Posts: 494
- Joined: November 30th, 2012, 7:45 am
- Location: Missouri
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Hans, i completely agree with you. I love scientific names and know many from the U.S. I am trying to learn scientific names of other areas as well, but when people (not pointing anyone out) use solely scientific names of herps that i am not familiar with, i don't learn anything because there is no common name along with it. Everyone has to start somewhere, so i thank Rupert for having understanding.
-Bethany
-Bethany
- Kevin Messenger
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Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
I couldn't agree more Hans. A long time ago I did both, but once I got to Asia, I realized that was pointless. As you mentioned, most don't have common names. And of the ones that do - they are ridiculous!! (usually) - some of my favorite common names:Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:At the risk of doing a Cato the Elder here ("Carthaginem esse delendam, dammit!"), repeating my agenda until everyone hates me: common names are a slippery slope. Unless it's a high-profile animal such as a cottonmouth or a king cobra, common names may vary even from county to county, and once you get down to animals in countries where no one speaks English, you can forget about common names. The most common nocturnal snake in Taiwan, Dinodon rufozonatum, has no English common name at all. Of the 169 known snakes in Borneo, only a tenth or so have recognizable common names. I suggest you learn the scientific names as early as possible, because no matter your path in herping/herpetoculture, you will eventually deal mostly with animals that no one but herpetologists have ever heard of...Rich in Reptiles wrote:I appreciate that you enter both the scientific name and the common name, that helps folks like me actually learn something without going to google to get the common name .
"Dorsal Striped Opposite Fingered Tree Frog" - I think saying "Chiromantis" is way easier.
"Temporal scale-less belly-chain snake" (or Amphiesma atemporalis - which in Latin makes WAY MORE sense - "lacking the temporal scale").
"Karin Metacarpal-tubercled Toad."
"Pointed-tongued floating frog"
"Vocal sacless treefrog" (Polypedates mutus)
"Serrate-legged water treefrog" (I like how the common name implies both a water frog and a treefrog)
I literally could go on and on - and it's fun to read them. How ridiculous some names can get.
And also as you point out, all of the variation - I say "Fejervarya limnocharis" - if you're from India, you say Indian Rice Frog, if from China, Paddy Frog, other names "Asian Grass Frog, Cricket Frog, Field Frog, Common Pond Frog" - it goes on and on. I've had friends in SE Asia say "hey, I just caught a bullfrog." - I got excited because I was thinking "Rana catesbeiana" (American Bullfrog) - but no, in SE Asia, Kaloula pulchra is often called the Asiatic Bullfrog, or Banded Bullfrog - yet in China it's called the Asian Painted Frog. So confusing. It took me a long time to realize what frog he was talking about (because he didn't know the scientific name).
An example in this post - "Black-barred keelback" - that's a new common name I've never heard of. I almost always just see "Green keelback," occasionally "black-banded keelback" (but not very often). Basically it's impossible to get a common name "wrong" because of all of the variation out there. My mom complains about scientific names too when I write emails home and tell everyone what I caught. She has dad translate. I write: "Yeah I caught a Lycodon ruhstrati, Sibynophis chinensis, and Oligodon ningshaanensis today." That may sound confusing to her. But if I said "I caught a Chinese Mountain Wolf Snake, a Chinese Mountain Snake, and a Ningshan Short-headed Snake" - all of that will be just as confusing (I've tried it before - the common names start running together for most of my non-scientific name speaking friends; Chinese Mountain Wolf Snake, Chinese Mountain Snake, Chinese Mountain keelback, Mountain Water Snake, Mountain Stream Snake; so if it all runs together for them, why make it harder on everyone else. Might as well just use scientific names, right? Especially since sometimes they are easier and shorter to understand).
Oh - and sorry to get on this tangent, this is just another big pet peeve of mine when it comes to Asian common names - I just Love (sarcasm) how the same common name can be given to multiple genera.
Checkered keelback = Xenochrophis piscator
Buff striped keelback = Amphiesma stolatum
Big Eyed Mountain keelback = Pseudoxenodon macrops
Groove-necked keelback = Rhabdophis nuchalis
Chinese keelback = Sinonatrix percarinata
Sichuan Mountain keelback = Opisthotropis latouchii
Hot-spring keelback = Thermophis baileyi
Anyway... sorry to get on my soap box. I just saw Hans' comment and couldn't agree more. As he also pointed out - a lot of the mainstream snakes do have recognizable common names (King cobra, mangrove snake, banded krait, etc). But in Asia, I gave up on the common names after I saw that either A) they don't exist, B) they are ridiculous, or C) they make no sense (assigning 7 different genera to the same common name of "keelback" does not make sense)
- Noel Thomas
- Posts: 39
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Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Just to add to Kevin's post of Asian genera
Blue necked keelback - Macropisthodon rhodomelas
Olive keelback - Atretium schistosum
That puts us at 9 genera?
keelback, racer, ratsnake = ughh
Blue necked keelback - Macropisthodon rhodomelas
Olive keelback - Atretium schistosum
That puts us at 9 genera?
keelback, racer, ratsnake = ughh
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Epic, I need to go over this a few times to let it all sink in to be clear on it. Wow what a post.
Re: Cobras and Tons More Thailand Snakes!
Thanks Justin