Team-BHP - Snakes!

Lack of knowledge and a little bit of stupidity can lead to this.

YouTube - ‪Sad news story from palakad watch it manoramanews snake bite malayalam‬&rlm;

This is from a malayalam news channel, the kids caught a 7 footer from the roadside and they were showing off forgetting the fact that is seven feet of all muscle, the snake bit the dude holding it in the hand and it bit another dare devil in the neck, the first one died and the second one was in ICU when heard last, i am sure he must have also suffered the same fate as a bite to the head and neck area is more deadly.

Guys this thread has been a great resource for a lot of us to understand this elegent yet complex creature but, one thing we all should remember is, this is a creature which has gone through millions of years of evolution and its not evolved into an animal with only one mission, Kill everything that confronts it. Let all have the respect this creature deserves and keep safe distance.

Happy off roading.

Pramod

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samurai (Post 2342122)

Just found this in one of the bathrooms in my Manipal home. Currently waiting for the snake catcher to arrive. Since it is in closed area, I am not trying anything myself. Better let the pro deal with it.

I am not able to make out which snake it is, it coiled up and made loud hissing sound when I first tried to lift it with a long stick. I gave up at the point.

Whoa, thats quite brave of you, at least in my books! Even that photo is giving me the shivers.
I find it challenging enough to chase a lizard out, wonder what I would do (other than freeze in my tracks) if I see a snake in my bathroom. I hope this never happens both for my good and the snake's!

Quote:

Originally Posted by addyhemmige (Post 2403069)

Wow!!! It looks like a saw scaled viper (?). How did you happen to find it?

We had spotted atleast 3 such snakes through the trek. Near the bushes around the streams. This one was near the basavanabaayi falls I think.

Going on another trek in the same area this weekend. Not hoping for such spottings though :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by figo_united (Post 2403057)

Here's one of the vipers we spotted during our monsoon trek in the sharavathi valley last year.

Attachment 565253

Quote:

Originally Posted by addyhemmige (Post 2403069)

Wow!!! It looks like a saw scaled viper (?). How did you happen to find it?

Its actually a Malabar pit Viper. Venomous, but not potent enough to kill a human being.

Spotted a very huge Rat snake in Bangalore University Campus today morning. I saw it while I was driving through the campus. This snake was moving just some 10-20 mts from the roadside and suddenly it stopped. I don't know how I spotted it while driving, but I immediately stopped my car was watching it from inside when the traffic behind me began to pile up. So, I had to move on.

For the past two days, I was in Kudremukh National Park and I could not even see one bit of wildlife, but here I see a very fine specimen of a rat snake right here in Bangalore and that too, from a car. Talk about luck!!!:D

The snake was quite fat and easily about 6-8 feet. This is one reason for me to believe that it was a rat snake as generally Cobras, do not get that long.

There were 2 newspaper reports in Kerala last week about 2 snakes being caught by wild-life officials from homes around the Alappuzha-Chertala region & released in the Sabarimala forest. What was intriguing was that both snakes were referred to as Kari-Moorkhan, which would loosely translate to Black-Cobra. I know about Cobra (Moorkhan) and King Cobra (Raja Vembala), but came across this specimen for the 1st time. Are there indeed 3 types of Cobras ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno (Post 2416296)

Could it be that the skin colour of these cobras were darker compared to regular cobras? I guess that the skin complexion changes of cobras in different locations. I have heard that the skin of the snakes living in dense forest areas are darker compared to their counterparts living on the plains (and it helps in camouflage too).

Here in Karnataka too, people generally use terms like 'Kari naagara haavu' (black cobra), but this is usually for the regular spectacled cobras. AFAIK, there is no other specifically black cobra.

I have also heard that the skin colour of the King Cobras too change with their location.

Quote:

Originally Posted by addyhemmige (Post 2435453)

Man, you are one lucky guy!!:) That was a great find. Did you go tracking with the ARRS team or did you go independently?

We were amazed with our own luck that day! we almost decided to come back when we spotted a huge snake on the way to the ARRS.
When we finally made it, we get THE spotting!

We went with a couple of ARRS volunteers to the spot.

This shot was taken at my office grounds this weekend, currently covered almost fully with dry grass and shrubs. The height of the vegetation varies anywhere from 18 inches to 6ft. It is an jungle out there. One would wonder what lurks there other than my Jeep.

At 11PM tonight I was web-surfing at home, I get a call from the office. The security had found a 6ft long Python lying just 10ft from where my Jeep is usually parked. Today my Jeep is out for service.

My night-shift receptionist wanted to call his friends and try catch the Python. I suddenly remembered how a BHPian mistook a Russel's Viper for a Python. I immediately barked orders not to touch the snake until I am there.

When I reached there, his friends were already gathered. After a close look at the snake, I figured it was indeed a python. It was too fat to be anything else. So I let them go ahead with the operation, apparently they have caught a few snakes before.

After 5 minutes of struggle, they finally caught it just before it tried to escape into the thick grassland.

This is my night receptionist, good to know he can catch snakes too. It wasn't mentioned in his resume.:)

What followed was hilarious. They wanted to drop the python into some deep forest, so they wanted to take it there my car. One of them spoke to me.

He: We can drop this in endpoint, we can go there in your car.
Me: How are we going to keep it in the car.
He: Two of us will hold it.
Me: In your bare hands?
He: Yes, we will hold tight.
Me: what is the guaranty it won't slip away from your hand when I am driving?
He: We will give guaranty.
Me: What? Oh man...

Anyway, we found a nylon bag and the python was put inside. Finally they decided to take it in their motorcycle to a forest near Athrady.

It also urinated near the tail. All the catchers were stinking after the effort.