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Little baby Hannah all decked out in summer colors. Ran over seconds before I could get there. :unhappy:
Sad
- Thread starter The Snark
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freedumbdclxvi
Arachnoprince
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That sucks. 
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As it was dying in my hands, uncomprehending what had happened, what its fate was, it served as a reminder to me. They don't know, don't understand, but us humans do. We owe it to them and to ourselves to try and make the world a little less violent. A little more compassionate and friendly, each in our own small ways.
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it's not a king,it's a Ptyas korros,indochinese ratsnake
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Super easy way to tell at a glance. The scales, marking on them, run lengthwise down the body with ptyas, looking like lines. King scales form a checkerboard. The scales are a uniform color without dark or light places.
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that looks more like a Ptyas korros than anything to me though,but that definitely isn't a king.
Thomas Ooi
Arachnopeon
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did you name this indo-chinese rat snake little baby hannah ?
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It's super easy to differentiate between a ratsnake and king cobra and i agree with CHLee that this is definitely not hannah
BTW u have no idea who u are dealing with :biggrin:
BTW u have no idea who u are dealing with :biggrin:
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i think digressing into a debate over what kind of snake it is....is missing the point of the post
Thomas Ooi
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nah, it's important not to mislead other people aswell...
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Would you or your comrades care to point out the characteristics of the snake pictured that you used for identification. That information would actually be useful.
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I should have saved the larger image and got a close up of the head. Sorry.
My IDing was pretty poor. It went into a paroxysm as it died. I looked closely at the head, noted a slightly short truncated nose and the scale in front of the eye then as it opened it's mouth wide I caught a glimpse of both itty bitty front fangs which made me rule out the other common snakes here (and made me glad I was holding it behind the head) Can't go by the tail as it was completely mangled and discolored.
My IDing was pretty poor. It went into a paroxysm as it died. I looked closely at the head, noted a slightly short truncated nose and the scale in front of the eye then as it opened it's mouth wide I caught a glimpse of both itty bitty front fangs which made me rule out the other common snakes here (and made me glad I was holding it behind the head) Can't go by the tail as it was completely mangled and discolored.
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the differences are pretty obvious once you've seen both species side by side.
this is a king
this is an indo chinese ratsnake
as you can see,the king has 2 occipital shields behind the perietal scale and black bordering around the head scales which are absent in Ptyas.
kings have a more to triangular cross section of the body while the cross section of Ptyas are more circular/rounded,with the exception of Ptyas carinata.
indochinese ratsnake photo was taken from www.rare-reptiles.com
this is a king
this is an indo chinese ratsnake
as you can see,the king has 2 occipital shields behind the perietal scale and black bordering around the head scales which are absent in Ptyas.
kings have a more to triangular cross section of the body while the cross section of Ptyas are more circular/rounded,with the exception of Ptyas carinata.
indochinese ratsnake photo was taken from www.rare-reptiles.com
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Thank you. That's very helpful.
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CHLee or somebody, could you please come up with some pictures as close up and spiffy as the ones posted of infant and juvenile cobras? Specifically Hannah, Siamensis and Kaouthai. Like an 18 inch king, a 6 inch Siamensis and a 12 inch kaouthai. That would be very helpful when I'm out on my jaunts.
I had another sad yesterday. A black and white banded krait, just a dinky 10 incher or so, that had to have been ran over only a few minutes before I got there. (But wow, was it ever fat! Ate all it's siblings perhaps?)
I had another sad yesterday. A black and white banded krait, just a dinky 10 incher or so, that had to have been ran over only a few minutes before I got there. (But wow, was it ever fat! Ate all it's siblings perhaps?)
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i don't keep any siamensis,but from what i've seen the babies are white and black,either banded or calico.
here's a baby kaouthia,around 12inches
this is a hatchling king belonging to a friend
baby indo,south thailand and malaysian kings have faint and thinner stripes along their backs,unlike those from china,north thai and india where the banding is more pronounced and thicker.
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The Hannah doesn't even remotely have the adults coloration. Is this normal or do the infants colors differ pretty widely? Differ from location to location? Differ in other ways? I've seen quite a few of what I've taken to be kings that are uniform dusty black and a 3 footer that was so gold bronze it bordered orange. He had his hood up to help clue a passing bicyclist. Would you say that is typical kaouthia infant coloration? It's identical to an adult.
I'm doing a morbidity inventory of sorts, trying to ID the roadkills around here. I'm seeing around 5 squishes a week, mostly small right now.
I'm doing a morbidity inventory of sorts, trying to ID the roadkills around here. I'm seeing around 5 squishes a week, mostly small right now.
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yeah,baby kaouthia just look like mini versions of the adults.
there are two versions of baby kings,the one i posted before,and this,the one with thicker banding.(the chinese,indian and north thailand kings)
image from treknature.com
the colour and patterning of kings do differ from each locale,there are two types found in Malaysia,one is the golden/light brown type,another is the dark olive one.I've heard of hobbyists and performers here mention of a red headed king,which has an orange neck and head,but never seen one yet,could be the same thing you mentioned.