Borneo Dispatches #79: Eleven Reed Snakes In Five Minutes

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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Borneo Dispatches #79: Eleven Reed Snakes In Five Minutes

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Last Saturday we found the largest number of snakes we've ever encountered on a single day in Borneo: eleven. All of them within 5 minutes, in a thirty-foot long ditch just outside Permai Rainforest Resort on the Santubong Peninsula north of Kuching, Sarawak.

Without exception, all of them had been literally baked to death. These small and fragile Reed Snakes (Calamaria sp. and other genera) live under moist leaf litter and are highly vulnerable to heat exposure; some will die in your hand when you pick them up. After a full month with no rain, the moist leaves in the ditch had become bone-dry, and the snakes lost the protective humidity of their environment, which they couldn't leave due to the steep, tall (for them) walls. There are only nine in this photo, we found two more later....

Many of them have pretty bellies. I've given the whole lot to Indraneil Das at the Unimas Herpetology Department ... reed snakes are a %$#@!! to ID, so I'll let the pros deal with it. I'll post the proper names here once Neil has determined them :-)
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Hans junior & his brother Karl, Wranglers of the Dead, in situ
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BillMcGighan
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #79: Eleven Reed Snakes In Five Minute

Post by BillMcGighan »

That's amazing that they are that sensitive to temps.



PS
Kids are growing. (you probably noticed it by the increase in food purchases growing over the years! :lol: :lol: )
dendrelaphis
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #79: Eleven Reed Snakes In Five Minute

Post by dendrelaphis »

Wow, that's incredible. I also found some dried out specimens over there but never so many. Indeed they're difficult to identify but here's my guess based on my survey of that area:

- Pseudorabdion longiceps
- Calamaria leucogaster
- Calamaria borneensis

(-:
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krismunk
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #79: Eleven Reed Snakes In Five Minute

Post by krismunk »

Sounds like simply collecting huge bags of leaf litter from the right localities and sifting thorugh them might even be a reasonably efficient way to herp around there. In these parts it's practiced for inverts.
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dery
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #79: Eleven Reed Snakes In Five Minute

Post by dery »

These reed snakes you found have pretty dorsal sides as well. They look pretty fresh.
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #79: Eleven Reed Snakes In Five Minute

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions! The snakes were not fresh at all, though ... I kept them around the house for a week, unrefrigerated, and they still didn't emit any kind of odor whatsoever.
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LouB747
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #79: Eleven Reed Snakes In Five Minute

Post by LouB747 »

When I first saw that photo, I didn't think it was real. Great colors!
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Noah M
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #79: Eleven Reed Snakes In Five Minute

Post by Noah M »

LouB747 wrote:When I first saw that photo, I didn't think it was real. Great colors!
Haha, yeah. Looked like somebody had spilled a bag of skittles.
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