Borneo Dispatches #72: Rare Snake (?), Common Snake (?)

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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Borneo Dispatches #72: Rare Snake (?), Common Snake (?)

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

This one is possibly Battersby's Reed Snake (Calamaria battersbyi). If so, it's only the second one ever recorded (see also here). And to achieve this heroic herpetological feat (if i is one), we didn't even have to slog up and down headhunter-infested mountain ranges for months of total deprivation: we found it during a night stroll through a tiny public park in central Kuching. ID pending until somebody has time to check. (Even after two years here, I'm still gobsmacked by the number of unknown-to-science life forms people dig up here in Borneo.....)
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Three-Banded Bridled Snake (Dryocalamus tristrigatus). Cute little bugger :-)
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CCarille
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #72: Rare Snake (?), Common Snake (?)

Post by CCarille »

Amazing find Hans!!! Just unbelievable.
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Ruxs
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #72: Rare Snake (?), Common Snake (?)

Post by Ruxs »

Took you a bloody long time to post these, Hans!

It's a darn hard job to judge the 'rarity' of any Calamaria, but Calamaria battersbyi is certainly a rarely seen or documented species with a little knowledge on it's range, so yes, I would go as far as to call it a 'rare snake'.

As to D. tristis being a 'common snake', I disagree: It's small, secretive and (from what I hear) doesn't exist sympatrically with the common D. subannulatus , making it's range disjunct. Whether it's a species frequently found in the areas where it does occur, I'm not sure, but due to it's limited range and infrequent sightings I would not go as far to call it 'common'.
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #72: Rare Snake (?), Common Snake (?)

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Ruxs wrote:Took you a bloody long time to post these, Hans!
Yes, I hope the hiatus will now be over. No, wait - I'm traveling to Germany for a month next week. Dang.
D. tristis
Tristis?
I would not go as far to call it 'common'.
Well, you know how it is down here on our seemingly herp-barren island. Anything you see more than once a year is considered common :-)
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