[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by condor

Is the Snake-Guard stick available in the market now ?

Couple of months back, my neighbor had check with the inventors about the same. They had quoted around two months for product to be launched commercially.

That said, I am not sure if the same will be useful in situations like mentioned by Smartcat and NPV, the targeted customer base is for those working in field when they will be mostly stationary.

[Fillmore]

Last month had an encounter with the following snake , assuming it is a Common Krait. Can someone please confirm it ?

This one was most likely a very young snake. Unfortunately it crawled into a store room and was too swift to catch. A watchman near by hit it with a stick and killed it :-( before I could call some professional catcher.



Have the following questions.
This one was around a foot long in length.

1. If a snake this size bites you does it have enough venom to kill you ?
2. If bitten how much time would you have in your hands ( mintues/hours ) before reaching a hospital that administers anti-venom ?

Reason I ask is because given the size , I was told that they could be more around which would have hatched.

[crdi]

Last week my neighbour had called me at work frantically to inform that my dog (a mongrel bitch), was having a violent altercation with a snake.

I rushed home and saw that it was in a stand-off with a fully grown cobra!

As the dog saw me appraoching to unlock the gate, it charged at the snake again. Myself and a small crowd of onlookers somehow managed to separate them, but both had suffered bites. The snake was in a bad shape already and was killed by one of the onlookers.

I rushed the dog to the veterinary hospital, where they immediately started antivenom as slow IV (was in stock luckily), three vials of antivenom were given, was heartbreaking to see the condition of the animal deteriorating (lot of drooling and respiratory distress). The vet had said, prognosis would be good only if she survives at least 10 hours and adviced me to take her back home. It was in horrible distress during the return journey, somehow reached home and set it free, but was not seeing any improvement.

Miraculously, after a few hours, she stood on her own and started to stagger, was really relieved to see that! Drooling persisted for a couple of more days and a large swelling was there on the side of the muzzle, where it had got bitten. Now a healing necrotic area is there at the site.

Looks as though my dog was lucky (her name is also 'lucky') this time around.

My advice to anyone whose pets or livestock suffers a snake bite, is to rush the animal immediately to a veterinary setup having antivenom in stock or call for their services and hope for the best outcome.

[vikram_d]

So this was going on in my factory compound last week on Friday. I have never seen a prey being swallowed live. We let it eat in peace and then it disappeared into the night.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

Last month had an encounter with the following snake , assuming it is a Common Krait. Can someone please confirm it ?

It looks like common wolf snake (not venomous) to me. Bands of Krait are different than these.

[vivek95]

Spotted this cobra on the way while I was driving from Kollur to Kundapur (Udupi district, Karnataka ) the last week.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by crdi

My advice to anyone whose pets or livestock suffers a snake bite, is to rush the animal immediately to a veterinary setup having antivenom in stock or call for their services and hope for the best outcome.

A neighbor's home has a backyard with some bamboo trees and they sometimes have snakes visiting the place. They have couple of Indie dogs and these are really brave - they've killed about 3 snakes till date, just couple weeks ago they killed a 7 foot snake! Once, one of these dogs had a swollen lump on the forehead, was under observation but it went away in a day and back to normal, amazing dogs these!

[Sutripta]

^^^
If one sees snakes on a regular basis, I think one should keep a list of hospitals/ clinics where antivenom is available. Rushing to the nearest hospital might not be helpful in this case.

Regards
Sutripta

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Are cats (apart from smartcat ) a good pet to have if you have snakes?

Dogs are excellent pets when it comes to finding and confronting snakes. The dogs at my parents place have found at least a dozen snakes (mostly rat snakes) in their compound. However, we did lose one dalmatian to a viper, he had gotten bitten on his tongue by the snake which he killed. The vet who we called didnt identify the snakebite and said that our dog would be safe.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

This is what I thought. Just thump the ground with an ordinary stick, or even walk heavily.

My relatives live in a large property in Kerala which is known to have a lot of snakes and its not always safe to walk there in the nights. They use the same approach as what you said, they walk with a stick and keep striking the ground with it as they walk. It acts as a deterrent to the snakes who keep away and it works very effectively.

[supremeBaleno]

Spotted this one in the canal near my home - swims pretty well, including diving and surfacing some distance away. Looks like a normal water snake.

Originally Posted by smartcat

Russell's Viper looks fat enough to be mistaken for the Indian python. But Deepak says python has not been spotted in Bangalore city for over 10 years now. If it looks like a python, it is very likely to be Russell's viper or Saw scaled viper

While the R.Viper does indeed get mistaken for a python, the saw-scaled viper is different in looks & much smaller in size compared to a python. BTW, you had quite a scare there with the R.Viper.

Originally Posted by saket77

Just imagine a snake present in car's foot-well area at night. When I first heard of snake spottings in my area, I would be very scared getting into my car and driving at night. I don't think it is difficult for snakes to get into the passenger cabin!

Unless any door is open or window partially open, snakes can't get into the cabin of a closed car.

Originally Posted by NPV

He said it's a baby Cobra because of the hood and 2 black spots.

Too small a pic to make out what snake it is, but if its a juvenile, possible that there are others of the brood around.

Originally Posted by NPV

Is this a Rattle or a Rat snake ?

As smartcat said it looks like a cobra. I dont think we have rattle snakes in India.

Originally Posted by smartcat

I'm not quite sure if this is totally scientific. Remember that snakes are sensitive enough to pick up vibrations of even small prey like rats. That means, they can pick you up even if you are tiptoeing. So all that foot stomping and stick swinging is unnecessary - snakes already know you are coming!

Yes, snakes pick up minute vibrations. But the stomping of feet & the resultant vibration usually makes most snakes scamper, which I think is the intention.

Originally Posted by Fillmore

Last month had an encounter with the following snake , assuming it is a Common Krait. Can someone please confirm it ?

As Samurai said,looks like a wolf-snake - often mistaken for a krait & killed.

Originally Posted by Fillmore

This one was around a foot long in length.
1. If a snake this size bites you does it have enough venom to kill you ?
2. If bitten how much time would you have in your hands ( mintues/hours ) before reaching a hospital that administers anti-venom ?

Size doesn't seem to have a relation with venom potency, atleast with the big 4 snakes of India. The krait (and saw scaled viper) are much smaller than the Russels viper and the Cobra, but the krait's venom is very potent and needs immediate antidote. In some parts of Kerala, the krait is called "ettadi moorkhan" meaning 8-foot cobra, the 8-foot not referring to its size, but the number of steps a man will manage after being bitten by one.

[SmartCat]

Did some research on snakes. That is -> called up people, did some Google search and checked out some Youtube documentaries.

The best book for identifying snakes in India is SNAKES OF INDIA: A FIELD GUIDE by Rom Whitaker. I just ordered my copy from Amazon.in. Costs around Rs. 900



Rom Whitaker is a well-known herpatologist. Just Google his name and you will get a wealth of information on Indian snakes. He has made a couple of videos too (check Youtube)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_Whitaker



The Big Four are responsible for around 10 Lakh snakebites and 50,000 fatalities per year. Here is the breakup of fatalities:

Russell Viper: 50%
Cobra: 30%
Krait: 10%
Saw scale viper: 10%

Random facts:

- Vipers do NOT run away when approached by humans. Cobra and Krait try to flee from approaching humans.
- Krait bite is NOT painful. Hence many victims ignore the bite mistaking it to be a non-venomous snake.

Two reasons for high fatalities in India:

- Lack of access to medical care centers with anti-venom stock (in rural areas)
- People in rural areas depend on herbal treatments for snakebites.

If you stay in Western or Northern Bangalore, the following hospitals treat snakebites (and always stock anti-venom):

KC General Hospital (Govt)
Peopletree Hospital (Private)

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Rom Whitaker is a well-known herpatologist. Just Google his name and you will get a wealth of information on Indian snakes.

One of his biggest contributions is the Crocodile Bank on ECR at Chennai. A must-see - especially with kids. Apart from the multitude of crocodiles, the place has a small snake park, where they have the big-4 snakes of India, show how venom extraction is done etc.

[sparky@home]

Vava Suresh is an Indian wildlife conservationist and a snake expert from kerala. He is a person people call when the big snakes are sighted, I am attaching one of his latest videos available on you tube, wherein he is catching a real big King Cobra without any kind of help. It is scary to say the least, and not the kind of snake I would like to come across anywhere, and to handle it without any aid, I am speechless.

https://youtu.be/vWIejLqGbDY

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Vava Suresh, is a good expert at snakes. Few months back, a snake appeared in one of my offices, and I insisted it be let alone. Some staff contacted the local forest department office, only to be told that they won't intervene unless humans are attacked. So somebody photographed the snake and whatsapped it to Mr. Vava Suresh. It was identified as non-poisonous. Unfortunately, this proved to be tragic. (For the snake, that is.)

The moment it was identified as harmless, people rushed at it with sticks. Was heartbroken.

The snake was feeding on rats which had made the mountains of files (and even an old petrol engine from a long condemned amby) their residence. The "murderers" were now quick to dispose off the old scrap.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by sparky@home

Vava Suresh is an Indian wildlife conservationist and a snake expert from kerala. He is a person people call when the big snakes are sighted, I am attaching one of his latest videos available on you tube, wherein he is catching a real big King Cobra without any kind of help. It is scary to say the least, and not the kind of snake I would like to come across anywhere, and to handle it without any aid, I am speechless.

I am not finding the video but he has been pretty lucky since I have seen two such videos where he was bitten. He has managed to survive both the occasions. On both occasions, the turn of events is the same. He gets distracted by one of the spectators and the moment he takes his eyes off the snake, it immediately bites him. Guess he has not corrected that method. Its quite amazing that both the times, the reptile attacked right at the time when Suresh took his eyes elsewhere.

Here is one video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTrAFA3xHR0

They should respect the capabilities of the reptile and just do what is necessary. In most of these catches, he spends a lot of time playing with the reptile and talking to people. Instead, he could first secure the reptile and then educate people and answer their questions. It will be fair to both sides.