A wonderfully snakey day

[The Snark]

Driving home we saw this beautiful young king cobra crossing the road. I grabbed the camera and here came a car.
OH CRAP!!

But he made it!

And then upon arriving at home, my long suffering SO points out a strange new fruit in our tree.

(Poking his nose out for a moment...

A lovely young python.

Happy happy, joy joy. :clap:

 

[pitbulllady]

Man, that was a "hold-your-breath" moment! Lucky for that little guy that he made it safely across the road; many of the drivers around here would have smashed their car right into that wall in their attempt to kill a snake! I've seen more than one flip a vehicle over into a large ditch while trying to run over a snake; they simply forget where they are, or their own safety(let alone anyone else's, as one such driver had his four-year-old son in the cab of the truck with him when he rolled it several times while trying to run over a Kingsnake), when they see a snake on or near the road. I've even seen people run directly into the path of ANOTHER car while trying to run over a snake that was ALREADY DEAD!

The little Retic is beautiful, but this species is, to me, anyway, one of the most beautiful of all snakes, bar none.

pitbulllady

 

[Niloticus]

Very nice pics. That is certainly something that you don't find everyday... especially where I live.

Niloticus

 

[rattler_mt]

awhhhhhhhhh cute teh retic thinks its a green tree python..........oddly enough ive had a ball python that did the same thing. i have to agree retics(other than the super tiger morphs) are some of the most beautiful snakes around

 

[The Snark]

It was a heart stopper and I was sure he was going to get smooshed. He was going flat out for the side of the road. The driver of the car switched lanes and was doing his best to avoid hitting the guy. Just as I caught that shot the snake sensed that tire and stopped. The driver even slowed down after to see if he missed. It was one of those ultra rare times when I actually had a camera at the ready. I was sorry I had no collecting gear and help. The little guy could have used some tick removal and a boost out of the ditch into the fields beyond.
The rice fields around our house are flooded and up to their eyeballs in frogs. The python spent the day digesting the previous nights pig out and at sunset went back out for seconds.
The one photo-op I missed that I truly regret was a huge king cobra stretched beside the road. He was tan gold in color. I barely saw him and stopped beside him. He was the length of my jeep, (10 feet) plus six feet behind the jeep and his head about two feet beyond the front bumper. My wife had neatly packed the camera in it's bag and by the time we got it out.... pffftb!


Trying to hit animals... Sorry to involve religion into this board and threads but, here just about everyone is Buddhist. While killing occurs, Buddhists as a rule don't go out of their way to kill and maintain a much higher degree of live and let live mentality.

 

[The Snark]

Here is my particular darling. I once made the mistake of hand feeding her a rabbit. Now every time I open her cage she tries to get in my lap.

 

[Crotalus]

Very nice pix! But that doesnt look like a king cobra juvenile to me.
They are usually banded:
http://wmcu2006.org/photogall/images/s3.jpg

 

[kraken]

Man I wish we had snakes like that here! Was it a young black pakistan cobra?

 

[The Snark]

Very nice pix! But that doesnt look like a king cobra juvenile to me.
They are usually banded:
http://wmcu2006.org/photogall/images/s3.jpg

You are right, they usually are as in this pic. But in that enclosure are about 8 that are a completely uniform color. Perhaps it is a monocellate? We also have a few monocellates that are trying to emulate the bands of the kings.
I called the above a king as that was the general impression I got, but I could be wrong. (Probably am!) :liar:

What and where with that lovely specimen you linked???

The general rule I follow with kings is the belly color never extends above the lower jaw. You can compare these two kings to the monocellate juvenile. (Please tell me that is a monocellate and we didn't get a black and white spitter mixed in there)

 

[pitbulllady]

Very nice pix! But that doesnt look like a king cobra juvenile to me.
They are usually banded:
http://wmcu2006.org/photogall/images/s3.jpg

Yeah, they HATCH out that way, but that's still a pretty decent-sized snake, so it's probably lost most of its banding by this age. I know that the few I have seen hatched in captivity here in the US do not keep that banding for very long. I guess that the banding is probably more protection against predatory birds than anything else, and once the snake reaches a size where more birds would no longer be a threat, the bands start to disappear.

pitbulllady

 

[Dom]

Yeah that's pretty much like my neighbourhood, you can't swing a cat without hitting a retic or king cobra:liar: :liar: .
If I lived there as a kid I don't think I'd be alive today, something would have nailed me for sticking my hands or face in the wrong place.
Must be awesome living in (or near) the garden of Eden.
Excellent pics BTW!!

 

[Crotalus]

Yeah, they HATCH out that way, but that's still a pretty decent-sized snake, so it's probably lost most of its banding by this age. I know that the few I have seen hatched in captivity here in the US do not keep that banding for very long. I guess that the banding is probably more protection against predatory birds than anything else, and once the snake reaches a size where more birds would no longer be a threat, the bands start to disappear.

pitbulllady

The picture dont even look elapid to me (it looks mor elike a colubrid perhaps Ptyas?) but I might be wrong. A close up of the head would solve it.
Compare with this one:
http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/snakes/indo-chinese_rat_snake.htm

 

[Dom]

Actually in the last picture 2 of them look like boomslangs. I haven't kept snakes for well over a decade so my species recognition isn't what it used to be esp. with elapids.

 

[Crotalus]

Actually in the last picture 2 of them look like boomslangs. I haven't kept snakes for well over a decade so my species recognition isn't what it used to be esp. with elapids.

They look more like Ptyas sp. maybe P. mucosus then Naja
P. mucosus:
http://ownersfish.fc2web.com/snakes/colubrids/05-colubrids/05-12-12ptyas-m-01-01.jpg

But a picture is a picture, you seen them IRL

 

[The Snark]

They look more like Ptyas sp. maybe P. mucosus then Naja
P. mucosus:
http://ownersfish.fc2web.com/snakes/colubrids/05-colubrids/05-12-12ptyas-m-01-01.jpg

But a picture is a picture, you seen them IRL

In my new thread 'More snake snarfing' there are 5 snakes under the label 'What'. Four of them are all variations on Naja Kaouthia aka Siam Cobra, Monocellate Cobra, Monocled Cobra and gads knows what else they are called. I suspect the specie will be further indentified into different groups in the future, or, possibly, they are interbreeding. One of them looks a lot like a Black and White spitter (Siamensis) but it doesn't spit.
The most recent comedy I read was some official sounding report that said we only have the Naja Kaouthia, Naja Siamensis and the Naja Sumatrana in Thailand.

 

[Crotalus]

In my new thread 'More snake snarfing' there are 5 snakes under the label 'What'. Four of them are all variations on Naja Kaouthia aka Siam Cobra, Monocellate Cobra, Monocled Cobra and gads knows what else they are called. I suspect the specie will be further indentified into different groups in the future, or, possibly, they are interbreeding. One of them looks a lot like a Black and White spitter (Siamensis) but it doesn't spit.
The most recent comedy I read was some official sounding report that said we only have the Naja Kaouthia, Naja Siamensis and the Naja Sumatrana in Thailand.

Hmm what else Naja sp. should you have?
N. sputatrix doesnt occur in Thailand

/Lelle

 

[The Snark]

Hmm what else Naja sp. should you have?
N. sputatrix doesnt occur in Thailand

/Lelle

I think the answer is going to depend on which publication your read and how recent it is. Atra has been found in Thailand and the natural barrier of the Mekhong river has been crossed in several places. There is a major debate over what Isanensis is, which is a spitter. It immediately got mislabeled sputatrix as it is decidedly different from the black and white spitter. The Mandalayensis has turned up here, probably an import by smugglers. That's another debate.
Meanwhile, the experts are now loudly claiming Isanensis is/is not Siamensis as the scale count is the same (though the coloration is very different).
Then, there have been reports of Naja naja, Pakistan variety.

Thailand has been a sort of smuggling clearinghouse for a couple of hundred years. Rare snakes were brought to Thailand to be trafficed along with opium. A number of pretty well documented accounts of bags belts and shoes having been confiscated and identified over the years. The smugglers simply turning the reptiles loose when in danger of getting caught. Things are going to remain confusing until someone coughs up the money to run extensive DNA testing.

 

[sick4x4]

wow

all i have to say is awsome i wish we had snakes like that out here!!! rattle snakes get old...king cobra's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!i have got to move!!!!!!!!

 

[Crotalus]

I think the answer is going to depend on which publication your read and how recent it is. Atra has been found in Thailand and the natural barrier of the Mekhong river has been crossed in several places. There is a major debate over what Isanensis is, which is a spitter. It immediately got mislabeled sputatrix as it is decidedly different from the black and white spitter. The Mandalayensis has turned up here, probably an import by smugglers. That's another debate.
Meanwhile, the experts are now loudly claiming Isanensis is/is not Siamensis as the scale count is the same (though the coloration is very different).
Then, there have been reports of Naja naja, Pakistan variety.

Thailand has been a sort of smuggling clearinghouse for a couple of hundred years. Rare snakes were brought to Thailand to be trafficed along with opium. A number of pretty well documented accounts of bags belts and shoes having been confiscated and identified over the years. The smugglers simply turning the reptiles loose when in danger of getting caught. Things are going to remain confusing until someone coughs up the money to run extensive DNA testing.

Isanensis is a old name which no longer are valid (they are siamensis according to Wolfgang Wuster), for Naja taxonomy check here:
http://sbsweb.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/Taxa/AsNaja.htm

Atra might been brought in as the pakistan Naja and mandalayensis as you wrote.

 

[The Snark]

Isanensis is a old name which no longer are valid (they are siamensis according to Wolfgang Wuster), for Naja taxonomy check here:
http://sbsweb.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/Taxa/AsNaja.htm

Atra might been brought in as the pakistan Naja and mandalayensis as you wrote.

Between you, me and the gatepost (and everyone else reading this thread), Wuster drives me crazy. Every time he updates his authorities, every two or three years, we get a new scale count and resorting of everything. For example, I know of a couple of monocellates 250cm long or more. :? The 'Siamensis' now has a great range of color and size than the King snake. :wall: