Opheophagus Hannah - oddity

[The Snark]

Just putting this on record, and if anyone else may have seen a similar oddity.

It was crossing the road about 100 feet away from our house, apparently having just come up out of the river. It doubled back as we drove up, putting on a typical Hannah burst of speed.
Approximately 8 to 10 feet long. Unlike the usual Hannah seen around here, a dusky grayish tinge, this was full on cold season very dark black making it's circumferential white rings stand out vividly. But in girth it was massive. easily the size of a python. Both my wife and I were startled, her usually laconic about sighting snakes commenting it was a big as her leg as we drove past, it only 3 or 4 feet away from her. Why would a young adult be so huge?

I'm going to haunt that area for the next few days, camera in hand, fingers crossed, as well as making local inquiries.

 

[RoachCoach]

My cheeks are clinched in situ both you and your wife's. I want to see this video. Not really happy that we are seeing unusual behavior in animals due to climate change and ecosystem displacement. Bitter pill I guess.

 

[The Snark]

Not really happy that we are seeing unusual behavior in animals due to climate change and ecosystem displacement.

And we are in a ground zero crunch zone. In the 14 years we have been here, a farming community, the population has at least tripled, well over 100 homes and commercial buildings have gone in on what was open fields or arable land, and traffic on the road is easily 10 times from when I first moved here. Our garden and house had local wildlife visits maybe 40 or 50 times a year, sometimes quite a bit more. Now I see wildlife in it around once every month or two, the only animals thriving in the area the scavenging birds.

 

[Smotzer]

A python like cobra sounds pretty incredible.....

 

[The Snark]

Actually for me what was most impressive was the coloration. Like we are talking Zebra like contrast. Never seen such near pure black and if the bands had been close together and uniform it would have passed as a mega porked out oversized banded krait.

Typical summer coloration of a Hannah around here. Blackish in the cold season to absorb heat, changing to this color to reflect it during the hot season. Note how the whitish bands are diffused and barely discernible.

Midway between cool and hot season. Of note, this gentleman is nearly 18 feet long and quite elderly. His coloration changes only slightly throughout the year. The white bands reduced to a few dots.

 

[l4nsky]

Definently grab a picture if you see it again, you got me interested for sure. Thinking possibly a well and recently fed color aberration/morph or possibly just a dark phenotype? We've had quite a few discussions about O. hannah over the years, haven't we?

 

[The Snark]

Thinking possibly a well and recently fed color aberration/morph or possibly just a dark phenotype?

Talked to the people at the snake farm. Language barrier but got the jist. They felt just as you mentioned. Also, it may have come out of brumation, had just shed and was wet from the river. As for obesity, it could easily have found a well populated frog wallow just before it went into brumation. They often won't stop eating until the food source is gone. If the pond had say, 10,000 frogs or more, massive girth explained.

 

[l4nsky]

Talked to the people at the snake farm. Language barrier but got the jist. They felt just as you mentioned. Also, it may have come out of brumation, had just shed and was wet from the river. As for obesity, it could easily have found a well populated frog wallow just before it went into brumation. They often won't stop eating until the food source is gone. If the pond had say, 10,000 frogs or more, massive girth explained.

Language barrier between me and you, me and the farmers or you and the farmers? In any case, my apologies. PM me and we'll see if we can shatter it for a more direct translation.

 

[The Snark]

Language barrier between

Me and the folks at the snake farm. Two problems, my Thai isn't that good, their English even worse. Then all the people working there grew up around snakes from near day one. They inherently know snakes to the most minute detail but explaing this inherent knowledge is close to impossible.

Just a Kaouthai. No big. I grabbed this pic as a perfect example of knowing your snake. He's gently holding it down with the hook. Accordingly it cannot come within strike range. He did this casually, knowing exactly where it needed restraint and how much. Now he is free to walk around it and maybe set up a tail grab, or release it in the direction he wants it to go.