Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Three pretty snakes I've met over the past ten days:

Reticulated python baby (Python reticulatus), roadcruised one wet night in the mountains. I love the satiny sheen on the scales...and the pink heat sensor pits!

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image


Painted Mock Viper neonate (Psammodynastes pictus), found by the Unimas herp department staff during a transect through the campus swamp (they got salties and monkeys there, too). First record of this species in a peat swamp. Damn tiny...just five inches or so.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Another set of the Jasper Cat Snake (Boiga jaspidea) I was given the other day (first set see here). Different background this time. Can't get enough of this thing!

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
User avatar
Antonsrkn
Posts: 971
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 2:38 pm
Contact:

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Antonsrkn »

3 Excellent snakes, love the way retics look...That iridescent sheen on their scales is beautiful and comes across very nicely in your photos. Visually they always remind me of Rainbow boas in south america a little bit.
User avatar
Ruxs
Posts: 373
Joined: November 23rd, 2011, 8:26 am
Location: London, United Kingdom

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Ruxs »

Kuching getting a bit better now?
On a side note I think thats the first Painted Mock Viper on the forum :)
User avatar
Sam Bacchini
Posts: 379
Joined: March 1st, 2011, 10:26 am
Location: NorCal

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Sam Bacchini »

The snakes are beautiful, and your photos of them are incredible!
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Thanks for the comments, folks!
Ruxs wrote:Kuching getting a bit better now?
Never been bad :-)
User avatar
moloch
Posts: 561
Joined: June 16th, 2010, 1:26 pm

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by moloch »

Very nice set of photos, Hans. All three were very beautiful. You really are having a stellar year with so many interesting finds.

Regards,
David
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Thanks, David! Yeah, I just passed the 200 mark this morning - found four snakes in my local forest park. Annual count for 2012 at 203 now (including DORs, though). I'm off for two weeks in Taiwan tomorrow, where I'll bird more than herp, thanks to the atrocious subtropical climate :-)
User avatar
Ruxs
Posts: 373
Joined: November 23rd, 2011, 8:26 am
Location: London, United Kingdom

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Ruxs »

Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:Thanks for the comments, folks!
Ruxs wrote:Kuching getting a bit better now?
Never been bad :-)
You called it a 'cursed island' I believe and admitted to having a hard time finding snakes in the first few months, plus Kuching doesn't the most diverse range of Bornean Snakes - but maybe that was just jokes :). However, recently every post has contained little gems and you even rediscovered that Mud-Snake, so I thought, if you were originally serious, that it was getting exciting :mrgreen:.
Maybe I just have a mind state that Snakes not found in the south of Thailand are immediately awesome and rare... so things like a Painted Mock Viper appeal more than a Red-Headed Krait. Whatever the case, hurry up with another great post buddy! :beer:
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Ruxs wrote:
Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:Thanks for the comments, folks!
Ruxs wrote:Kuching getting a bit better now?
Never been bad :-)
You called it a 'cursed island'

Oh that...well, let me quote Konrad Adenauer, Germany's legendary post-war chancellor: "Why should I care about the nonsense I said yesterday?" :-) I'm getting more and more content, I have to say. But I'm STILL finding only a fourth of the numbers I used to find in Taiwan!
Whatever the case, hurry up with another great post buddy! :beer:
Thanks for the continued support! I hope for some freak sunshine in normally rained-out, chilly Taipei, maybe I'll see the odd snake ...
User avatar
Ruxs
Posts: 373
Joined: November 23rd, 2011, 8:26 am
Location: London, United Kingdom

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Ruxs »

''Thanks for the continued support! I hope for some freak sunshine in normally rained-out, chilly Taipei, maybe I'll see the odd snake ...''


It's just the way things go in the tropics I guess. You can find 5 Enhydris Plumbea swimming in one puddle up north but for all my searching here I have found 1 DOR Plumbea. Snakes don't always rely on the road for heat and flipping debris is pretty useless (I have flipped one snake ever out of 3 trips to Thailand). Still, you got to admit that it just adds to the excitement of actually finding a snake - especially as it can always be a surprise.
And no, thank you for the continued exotic variety which I love so much :)

P.S I couldn't get the 'quote' thingy to work.
User avatar
kyle loucks
Posts: 3147
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 1:40 am
Location: Pennsylvania- Bucks Co. near Phila.

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by kyle loucks »

Stunning post! That retic hurts my eyes!
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

thanks, guys! I'm writing this from Kuala Lumpur airport,waiting my transfer to Taiwan, and the WiFi here sucks. Boy, does it suck. Now all I can do for the next 3 hours is do PC maintenance and watch women in burkhas bump their luggage trolleys into the luggage trolleys of half-naked women in flip-flops and ass tattoos... while I'm drinking six-dollar Chai Lattes at Starbucks. I love getting there, but I hate traveling!!

PS: it doesn't help that I feel like a bloody dinosaur with my one-year old, top-of-the-line Toshiba notebook here.NOBODY uses notebooks anymore, everyone is computing mobile...

PPS: sorry for the non-sequitur :-)
User avatar
dery
Posts: 1779
Joined: October 1st, 2011, 12:01 pm
Location: huntsville

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by dery »

I'd say they're all completely adorable. Thanks Hans.
User avatar
Ruxs
Posts: 373
Joined: November 23rd, 2011, 8:26 am
Location: London, United Kingdom

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Ruxs »

Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:thanks, guys! I'm writing this from Kuala Lumpur airport,waiting my transfer to Taiwan, and the WiFi here sucks. Boy, does it suck. Now all I can do for the next 3 hours is do PC maintenance and watch women in burkhas bump their luggage trolleys into the luggage trolleys of half-naked women in flip-flops and ass tattoos... while I'm drinking six-dollar Chai Lattes at Starbucks. I love getting there, but I hate traveling!!

PS: it doesn't help that I feel like a bloody dinosaur with my one-year old, top-of-the-line Toshiba notebook here.NOBODY uses notebooks anymore, everyone is computing mobile...

PPS: sorry for the non-sequitur :-)
Your leaving borneo???????
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Just for a family visit, no worries :)
User avatar
Ruxs
Posts: 373
Joined: November 23rd, 2011, 8:26 am
Location: London, United Kingdom

Re: Borneo Dispatches #62: Three Pretty Little Snakes

Post by Ruxs »

Phew. I'm guessing your wife is in Taiwan?
Post Reply