Thailand’s Snakes in the Dark
May 22, 2009 by Vern
Last night I went out about midnight on the porch to secure the motorbikes together with some steel cables and big padlock like I do every night.
Something was strange looking on one of the motorbike seats and it too me a second to realize as it started to move – it was an almost 2 meter long green snake!
Well, I love snakes so I immediately asked my wife to bring me the digital camera so I could take some video and photos. Why didn’t I get it myself? I learned something. NEVER take my eyes off the snake – no matter what. I’ve lost a couple that way.
The video was much too dark but I got about 80 photos as I tried to coax it into the neighboring jungle area and away from our group of houses.
The head of this snake is triangular – signaling poisonous, but small. I think the head of a pit viper is usually larger. Either way, I didn’t do anything too crazy, but I had to lift him up with my stick and play with him a bit. He was really slow moving and deliberate… didn’t strike once no matter how I moved him around with my stick.
At one point he climbed up the wall into the window of my neighbor – who wasn’t home yet. She’d have flipped out, I know.
The snake expert, Joachim Bulian, said on his snake site it’s particularly hard to ID the green vipers in Thailand. Well, here’s what he said…
Note:
A normal person cannot tell the difference between the green Pit Vipers. The following Pit Vipers, present in Thailand, have a green colour:
* Cryptelytrops (Trimeresurus) albolabris (White-lipped Pit Viper)
* Viridovipera (Trimeresurus) gumprechti (Gumprecht’s Pit Viper)
* Parias (Trimeresurus) hageni Hagen’s Pit Viper
* Cryptelytrops (Trimeresurus) macrops (Large-eyed Pit Viper)
* Popeia (Trimeresurus) popeiorum popeiorum (Popes Pit Viper)
* Popeia (Trimeresurus) fucatus *in the works from MALHOTRA & THORPE (2004) not yet entered
* MALHOTRA & THORPE follows, entered here under the name Popeia
* Parias (Trimeresurus) sumatranus (Sumatra Pit Viper)
* Viridovipera (Trimeresurus) vogeli (Bird Pit Viper)
I’d say from the photos and description on his site that mine is a:
Trimeresurus hageni
Thai:ThaiSnakeName-95 (ngu kiau hang mai)
But, supposedly it only grows to 116 cm – this one was definitely longer – over a meter and a half.
Here’s a photo that closely matches my snake… the belly was that same color of yellow. The head and eye looks just like it…
Any other guesses?
Oops – update: Snake expert, Joachim Bulian zapped me an email… this is a Boiga cyanea – a Green Cat Snake! They have poison, but are rear-fanged and due to their docile nature are pretty harmless for humans. They grow up to 186 cm – which matches my snake’s size. Picture and more at next post, Thailand’s Cat Snake >
More information needed on Thailand snakes? Try this…
Thailand Snakes FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions and Answers regarding Thailand’s poisonous and nonpoisonous snakes.
[...] Snake in the Dark > [...]
Hey Vern… I had this same snake in a banana tree next to my Kuti (monks hut). I don’t like snakes, but coaxed this one into the tall grasses on the hill side behind my hut. He didn’t seem to care about me being so close to him. Just kind of ignored me actually. I’ve seen several snakes around the temple here, nothing that I noticed that looks dangerous. We did have a python of sorts awhile back, he was up in my rafters. I convinced him to move somewhere else. Not sure where, but I still look for him from time to time. He was about 8′ long and about as thick as my arm. Basically what I did, was pour on the incense sticks and bug spray and he left. Didn’t like the smell I guess.
Gotta be careful with the green ones – there are lots of vipers that are green – and very poisonous. This one has some venom – but, rear-fanged and can’t really bite that well or that long to chew the venom into you. Assuming you don’t let it. This was a very cool snake -and I’m tempted to go look for him in the yard. I think I know where he hangs out.
Yesterday I saw a small copperheaded racer going across the road. I stopped and pulled his tail to get him in the road while I found something to get him with… and eventually just couldn’t find anything fast enough – a car was coming. He went off the side of the road and I lost him quick. Then when I got home I realized… take off my shirt and scoop him up with that. Next time… just hope it’s not a poisonous one the next time I’m unprepared.