I received a comment this morning from someone in Thailand that was really very interesting. A cat vs. a red-necked keelback. The outcome turned out OK, but pretty dramatic effects. Read on!
Category Archives: Thailand Snake Notes
How To Find a King Cobra in Thailand?
Many people are trying to find a king cobra in Thailand, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and elsewhere.
How Do You Find a King Cobra?
When I first got into the hobby eight or so years ago, I thought there was some sort of formula I could use to find snakes I was targeting. This was my mentality back then because I was an addicted kayak fisherman who was on the ocean every weekend and a fair number of weekdays floating around and catching gator trout, snook, redfish, and other amazing species. I figured catching snakes was just like catching fish. Target them with the right equipment, time, weather, and bait, and I could catch whatever I was focused on.
I’ve since learned that snakes and fish are radically different.
To start with, there are very few snakes you can target and catch repeatedly. Here in Southern Thailand I can usually target a Homalopsis buccata (puff-faced water snake) and have a good chance of catching one because I know where they generally are. Generally. Sometimes I cannot find them. Where they go is anyone’s guess, maybe to the deeper water during the dry season – because at the moment they are very difficult to find in the shallow pools I’ve been looking in.
Anyway, back to the King Cobra and how to catch one.
There are people who come over to Thailand and are lucky enough to find a snake during their vacation. One fell over a waterfall for a guy who sent me a photo of him standing beside one floating in a pool of water. Then, there’s everybody else.
Finding a king cobra comes down to just two things. Persistence, and luck. That’s it really. You can try to go out during daytime hours, or limited daytime hours. You can go out early evenings only. You can target patches of bamboo. You can go out during mating season. You can go out in areas where they are known to have been previously. You can rub captive king cobra feces all over your pants and walk around the forest. To my knowledge, it is only people who are persistent and who get lucky, that will find king cobras.
I’ve found four of them now. I live here in Thailand full-time and I am always looking around for them on the road, in open fields or wherever I am. I go looking for snakes in the forest a couple times a month on average. I can’t remember when I found the first one – there are two that were fairly close together. One was on step 357 of 1,200+ steps leading up a mountain at a Buddhist temple. People were screaming and a friend of mine ran down the steps and ran right into me.
Him: Hey Mr. Vern! Snake! You catch snakes, right?
Me: Sure, uhm, what kind of snake?
Him: Cobra! Big!
Me: How big?
Him: I don’t know, 4 meters maybe?
Me: No, I don’t catch 4 meter cobras!
I did however go up and touch the tail and poke it with a stick a couple times to move it off the steps. It was a real beauty – light brown, yellowish and in perfect shape. Very strong, and definitely the top of the reptile food chain in the area.
So, I wasn’t looking for snakes, and there she was – a real mindblower!
The next time was while looking half-heartedly for snakes and standing on a road that goes up a mountain. I was looking one way, turned around in time to see a massive tail of a king cobra disappearing into the thick brush. I mean massive as in twice the size and thickness of any other king cobra I’d seen at the snake show I used to visit a few times per month. It was ridiculously large. Apparently it just crossed the road behind me with no fear at all. I was only maybe 10 meters away.
Another time I found one on Penang Hill in Malaysia while running down a forest trail.
The last time, and this was one of the best for sure – was when I was herping with Tom Charlton, and he found one in the early evening as we herped some man-made pools I’d been to over 100 times before. I’d never seen a king cobra anywhere near there before. Still, there he was – 3 meters of absolute reptile perfection!
Tom had been coming to Thailand and Malaysia for 12 years and hadn’t found a king cobra before last week. They are NOT an easy species to target. You probably shouldn’t pay for a herping trip – a wildlife tour that promises to find you a king. In Indonesia they are actually promising you can find a wild king, but they’re putting them in bags and releasing them in front of the tourists that just paid stacks of cash to see one in the wild. It’s nuts!
There are two parts of the equation for finding kings – persistence and luck. Really, only luck is necessary – you don’t even have to go looking for king cobras to find them. You just need a lot of luck!
Good luck to you!
Thailand Snake Note – Bitten by Snake?
DO YOU KNOW WHICH SNAKE BIT YOU? IF YES, CLICK ONE:
- Monocled Cobra
- Spitting Cobra
- King Cobra
- Krait
- Pit Viper
- Russel’s Viper
- Coral Snake
- Red-necked or Other Keelback
If you are bitten by a snake in Thailand or anywhere in Southeast Asia:
1. Lay down on the ground and be calm. Many bites – around 50% – are “DRY” bites, meaning, there is no venom transferred during the bite.
2. Find someone to help you get to the hospital immediately – don’t wait for symptoms to begin, and don’t drive yourself.
Emergency Numbers:
- 1155 – Tourist Police – English speaking
- 191 – Thai police nationwide
- 1669 – Ambulance nationwide
- 1646 Bangkok ambulance
3. Stay as still as possible. Tell someone or write down what you can remember about the snake – Color? Thickness? Pattern? Was it in a tree? On ground? Identifying the snake is very important so you get the right antivenin, if one is needed.
4. Rinse the snakebite site with water if someone can bring it to you. Don’t get up to get water, stay laying down. Do not touch the bite site, or massage it, rub it, cut it open, or do anything to the site at all.
IF YOU KNOW WHICH SNAKE BIT YOU:
1. If the snake that bit you is a Pit Viper – any green or brown viper, just rinse the area with water and get to the hospital as soon as you can. Pit viper bites can take many hours and even days to become life-threatening. Pit Viper bites may burn and possibly throb at the bite site. Do NOT wrap a Pit Viper bite.
2. If the snake was a Krait, King Cobra, Coral Snake, or Keelback, you can apply an elastic wrap (or strips of any cloth) to the affected arm or leg, starting at the fingers (toes) and working your way up. Go directly over the bite site. The tension in the wrap should be firm, but a finger should be able to go under the wrap.
Snakes of this type have venom that is primarily neurotoxic, and affects nerve connections. The venom may act very fast – about 10 minutes, or you may have at least a couple hours before severe effects begin. Wrap the limb and get to a hospital quickly.
3. If the snake was one of the other cobras – Monocled or Spitting Cobras, you should not wrap the bite site unless you are more than 10 minutes away from a major hospital. If you are in a remote location – wrap the bite immediately. Wrap the bite immediately for children.
Some symptoms of envenomation are: vomiting, dizziness, severe headache, weakness, slowing of heart rate and/or breathing. Cobras have venom which is both neurotoxic and necrotoxic, meaning it can severely damage tissue at the bite site – especially when wrapped.
If you begin having any serious symptoms soon after a Cobra bite, immediately apply a snug pressure wrap starting at the foot or hand of the bitten limb and moving up the limb. Get to a hospital immediately – having someone take you in a car, truck, or sitting between between two people riding a motorbike. DO NOT DELAY.
IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHICH SNAKE BIT YOU:
1. If you do NOT KNOW what type of snake it was that bit you, go to the hospital immediately. Do not wait for symptoms to develop. Ideally you will be at a hospital within 10-15 minutes of the bite, and they can monitor symptoms. If you have a severe burning or throbbing at the bite site, do not wrap the bite – it is likely to be a Pit Viper or Cobra bite. HOWEVER, if you have nausea, stomach pain, breathing or speech difficulties, or drooping eyelids, wrap it immediately and go to the hospital fast.
2. At the hospital, antivenin is given AFTER you start to have symptoms, not before. Some bites are “dry bites” and inject no venom.
Caution… antivenin (also called antivenom) can cause severe allergic reaction which sometimes results in anaphylactic shock – a potentially deadly complication. Get good advice on the necessity of antivenin before it is administered. The doctors should do a test to see if you’re allergic to it first before full-scale administration of antivenin. They can also administer the first vial extra slowly and remain prepared for symptoms of shock in case of allergy.
One doctor I know well insists that antivenom should not be given until a syringe of epinephrine is on the table – in case of anaphylactic shock. He has found an approximately 30% instance of bad reaction against the antivenom.
Insist on it!
Here is how the test for sensitivity to antivenin is administered (from Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, Bangkok): “Since the antivenin is prepared from horse serum, sensitization to heterologous protein may occur in some individuals. To avoid serious allergic reactions, skin test should be performed prior to the administration by injection of 0.02 ml of 1:100 antivenin dilution intradermally. It should be noted that the skin test may not predict the anaphylaxis nor delay serum sickness reactions.”
Do Not:
- Suck the poison out or use any devices to suck out the venom, it can cause more damage to tissue if it is a viper bite.
- Use a tourniquet, electro-shock, or massage
- Use ice over the wound
- Drink alcohol, food, or use aspirin or drugs or medicine of any kind.
- Use herbal remedies – ingested or applied to the bite site.
Sources:
- Toxinology.com
- Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, Thai Red Cross Society,
Bangkok, Thailand (662) 252-0161-4; [email protected] - Guidelines for the Clinical Management of Snake bite in the South-East Asia Region. WHO publication, 2010.
Information for this article was collected from legitimate sources of emergency information regarding snakebite treatment.
If you want to dispute these steps – please send email to: [email protected]
Once you identify the snake that bit you – here is some more information by snake name – scientific classification:
AFPMB – Database of Venomous Animals and Plants (click)
Here is the database listing venomous snakes by country:
AFPMB Database of Snakes by Country (link is down, site is down)
2015 Recap and 2016 Ideas for ThailandSnakes.com
Well, 2015 went out with a slow crash of everything I have going online to provide income. In a way it’s good because it shocks me into doing something bigger. In a way, it’s bad because I was enjoying not having to work for the past eight years – just being on my own schedule without having to worry about money issues. I don’t have any income related to snakes, but I have at times asked for a donation for Snake Identification services and received some.
Everything cycles around… good times, bad times, and that’s OK. I’m ready for 2016.
In 2015 I wasn’t much focused on snakes until the latter part of the year. I herped sporadically in June and July – the best months for finding snakes, and I focused more on other pursuits like getting my foot healthy after a 5th metatarsal stress fracture. Now that’s healed up pretty well and I’m on track for running a 30 mile race through the mountains here in Thailand at the end of 2016.
Over the past eight years I’ve asked myself whether I could make a living doing something with snakes and other reptiles. Being in Thailand is great for the opportunities I have to see and interact with wildlife of all sorts. It isn’t so good for straight- up business opportunities unless well-funded. Which I’m not.
I thought for years about how great it would be to create a sort of wildlife zoo for people to come and experience snakes, lizards, geckos, turtles, and all sorts of other bugs and other things – in a very natural environment – like a large tented biosphere, almost like a butterfly enclosure you see at some parks. I have a lot of ideas about how to make it zoo-like, but not a zoo at all. I don’t believe in having captive animals – but I’ve come up with a way to organize it so we don’t have animals rotting in cages for years until they die.
So, I’ve been thinking about that. That’s a rather long-term goal. Could happen within a year if I met the right people.
I think about bringing groups of Thais and visitors to Thailand to some place like this to see wildlife instead of all we have – dilapidated “King Cobra Snake Shows” where the snakes are tormented day after day for no reason except a couple hundred thousand Thai baht each month going into the pockets of the owners. People attending shows learn next to nothing because the Burmese and Thais giving the shows don’t speak English well enough to communicate in the language. Not to mention a good portion of the information given out is entirely incorrect.
I’ve been looking at selling snake-related products like books, ebooks, tongs, hooks, traps, video training modules for kids wanting to learn more about reptiles and other animals we have all around us here. I’ve considered setting up a non-profit where people could donate tax-free.
I’ve been thinking about sort of going along the same lines as Rom Whitaker in the India Gats. He has setup a program to study king cobras by radio-chipping them, and following them extensively through the forest as they go about doing what they do on a daily basis. He did it without a degree in biology. He just established his little group and started doing it. I think he eventually got grants, and today he charges volunteers for staying there.
Anyway, so I’m thinking about a lot of things – even more than mentioned here, but I’m not fully convinced that getting started with a number of these projects is worthwhile, or sustainable. Few people across the world care at all about reptiles. I’ve looked at Kickstarter and Indiegogo.com – where people can raise funds (crowd-source) for various ideas, causes, animals, etc. There are very few having to do with reptiles at all. Those that have been tried – haven’t received hardly any donations.
The sad fact is that most people don’t really care about snakes all that much – the general population is just too afraid of them. Many people think that snakes are better off dead. Trying to survive by working with reptiles on donations – is going to be rough, if not impossible.
Still, somehow I’d like to make it work. There are those of us that are passionate about doing something to help stop the slaughter of thousands of king cobras being sold to China as dinner, or python and cobra skins for shoes and bags.
There are some really amazing animals in the rainforests of Thailand, but a lot of them are going to go away because locals see them as easy money.
Just yesterday I changed the name of our Facebook page from “Thailand Snakes” to “Thailand Snakes and other Reptiles.” I might start to branch out to cover lizards, geckos, turtles – wildlife people are maybe more likely to care enough about to donate for.
So then, I have a lot of ideas for 2016, but not sure how much will get started. It depends mostly on figuring out some sort of sustainable funding.
If you or someone you know has a real passion about reptiles and you have an idea how I could go about funding some of these ideas, please get in touch with me.
Don’t forget about our June 2016 Thailand Field Trip event – it will creep up on us faster than you think. There are still a few spots open if you’re thinking about joining us. Start HERE to register.
I’m almost finished with another ebook – not entirely sure of the title yet, but it will be something along the lines of, “Is That Snake In Your Yard Deadly?” I got some great photographers to contribute, so it should be a nice resource for anyone living in Thailand. I will send an email out and write a note here when I release it.
OK, have a GREAT NEW YEAR! If you’re up to something with snakes or reptiles in Thailand, or anywhere, feel free to share with me using the CONTACT page.
Cheers!
Vern L.
Thailand Anaconda
Just a quick note here to clear something up. We get some searches for people looking for anacondas in Thailand – Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Pattaya.
There are no anacondas in the country of Thailand. At least not natively. There are PYTHONS here.
We have mostly reticulated pythons, but then there are also Burmese pythons and Blood pythons.
Reticulated pythons get as long as an anaconda, but not as thickly muscled, nor do they weigh as much. The biggest reticulated python I’ve seen in the country was about 6.5 meters (21.3 feet). Supposedly they reach 30 feet.
Cheers!
Vern
How to Remove Snake During Bite?
If you are an experienced herper and you’re bitten by a deadly venomous snake in Thailand you have seconds to get the snake off you – the more time you take, the greater the chance you are in a life or death situation.
The problem with venomous snakes is that they chew the venom into their victim. The longer you let a snake stay attached to you, the more likely you are to suffer serious complications from the bite – including envenomation (venom injected).
It’s almost unbelievable, no, it IS unbelievable to me that Joe Slowinski – an accomplished herpetologist, let a Many-banded krait (Bungarus multicinctus) bite down on his finger for 10 seconds before getting it off. Perhaps he felt no fang pierce the skin, and so thought he was OK to ease the snake off his finger. Nobody that was there reported that. It’s just a guess. Why else would he let the snake bite that long? This is the #3 most toxic territorial snake in the world – and he definitely knew that the instant he was bitten. He died as a result of the bite some 30+ hours later after failing to get a helicopter to his remote location in Northern Burma.
Anyway, so, don’t let the snake bite down on you for more time than it takes to immediately get it off in the case of a cobra, krait, coral snake, or viper. All of these snakes can put you in grave danger of losing your life.
What is the proper way to remove a venomous snake? Great question – and I don’t know. In all the hundreds – or even thousands of videos I’ve watched about snakes, not one person has ever showed HOW.
I’ll ask a couple herpetologists today and add their responses to this snake note.
Ok, here is what I found out. Basically some advice from those that deal with snakes – venomous and non-venomous – a lot.
1. All venomous snakes are dangerous. Even those that are listed as “Mildly Dangerous” or something else here on this site.
2. Snakes have bad days, headaches, other aches, and other things that put them in agitated moods without you doing anything to cause it. Today is not like every other day with your snake, be extra careful everyday and don’t take the snake for granted.
3. Even small snakes can bite down hard and start chewing before you realize what is happening. Once they start chewing, and once the bite lasts for longer than a second or two – assume venom is being injected into your body and get the snake off you immediately. A 12 year old boy in Phuket, Thailand was bitten by his pet Rhabdophis subminiatus (red-necked keelback) and was in the hospital for 14 days with serious complications. He did pull through though.
4. If a snake bites down don’t pull back on the snake to pull it off you, some snakes have curved teeth (some more than others) and you risk ripping your skin, ripping the teeth off the snake, and making the wound worse.
5. Try grabbing the tail and petting it strongly by rubbing the scales backward – against the lay, ruffling them. This works well with most snakes.
6. Try holding the snake under water – submerged.
7. Try running very warm water over the snake’s head until it releases.
8. Try bending the tail up and backward – this causes a lot of pain in the snake, and even pythons are said to release their bite at this.
9. If you don’t particularly care if you kill the snake while removing it – you can pour rubbing alcohol over the snakes head – it should release. It may die though.
10. If you have vodka, whiskey, or some other strong drinking alcohol to pour over the head – that works well.
If you are bitten by a krait or a cobra, coral snake, or viper in the wild where water isn’t available, personally I would grab the snake behind the head – careful not to grab ON the head because the venom glands are located there on the sides of the head by the eye, and you could actually inject a lot more venom into your body than without touching those areas.
Force the snake’s mouth open and concentrate on getting the top jaw away from your skin – snake venom comes from fangs in the top of the jaw.
Remember, with deadly snakes you have very little time. You don’t have time to go find hot water or tequila, just get it off you immediately. Every second counts.
If anyone else wants to comment on this or has info to add – please write me at: [email protected]
Update: I found a video by some guys that get bitten many times a year. They recommend “Listerine” mouthwash to remove the snake quickly – every time. Fast forward to 2 minutes 40 seconds to see Listerine do it’s stuff.
I’ve started to bring a small container of Listerine with me in my snake bag.
Apparently they’ve used this often – and haven’t seen any negative effects on the snakes. Crazy idea – right?
Common Snakes Frequently Found in Thailand
Common Thailand Snakes
When visiting Thailand on vacation or for a long-term stay there are certain snakes you are likely to see and others that you will probably never see, even if you’re looking very hard to find them. On this page is a small selection of common (frequently found) snakes in Thailand. If you want a FREE EBOOK of COMMON THAILAND SNAKES – CLICK HERE.
Non-Venomous and Mildly Venomous and Harmless Snakes
Green Cat Snake (Boiga cyanea) This snake is almost 2 meters long when fully grown, and resembling the vipers – except it’s too long to be a viper. Be very careful with any green snake as there are many vipers with strong venom that are green and look very similar to this one. Vipers typically have brown colored tails. This snake has a solid green tail. This Green Cat Snake is harmless, and didn’t even try to bite as I interacted with it.
One rat snake – Ptyas korros, is especially common, but the adult does look very much like the monocled cobras to the untrained eye. Do be very cautious of any snake that is solid brown, grey, black, or that is mostly dark with some white spots – speckles or odd pattern. Cobras are quick to bite and one of the most deadly daylight snakes you’ll encounter (photo below).
Red-tailed Racer (Gonyosoma oxycephalum) This is a fairly large rat snake reaching around 2.1 meters in length. It has no fangs to deliver venom, and can be considered harmless for humans. It does bite, of course, so stay out of reach. This is an incredibly beautiful snake with green hues, blue-green eyes, and black and blue tongue. Stunning!
Radiated Rat Snake / Copper-headed Racer (Coelognathus radiata) – These are very common and may even qualify as one of the most commonly seen snakes in Thailand. Non-venomous and not dangerous, except they are big biters. Many small teeth. A bite can hurt and get infected because the teeth easily break off inside the skin. Color hue ranges from yellow to brown, There is another snake that looks very similar – the “Malayan Racer” which is very dark brown with a slightly different pattern (Coelognathus flavolineatus).
Keelback Snakes – Keelbacks are very common ground snakes and love water. You might see them in the water or on the ground moving around. Keelbacks are generally easily identified by distinct black (dark) lines from the eye area toward the jaw. Most keelbacks in Thailand are not very dangerous, but there are a couple in the “Rhabdophis” genus that are to be considered dangerous and potentially capable of a deadly bite. We have one featured in the venomous section below.
Golden Tree Snake (Chrysopelea ornata) A very common tree snake across Thailand, and their favorite food appears to be Tokay Geckos (Gekko gecko), so you may see one at your home. These snakes have a mild venom that doesn’t generally affect humans at all. These snakes do traverse across the ground but quickly find a tree when threatened. Masterful and very fast climbers! Common in homes, garages, and other structures.
Bronzeback Snakes – also incredibly adept and fast climbers, I first saw one as it came over my six-foot concrete wall in the back of the house in Surat Thani. Very thin snakes, not that afraid of humans. This snake bites quickly – as you might guess from the photo. To be honest, I’m holding the tail so I can get a good photo before it quickly disappears. Mildly venomous colubrids, and not dangerous to humans. There are many species of this snake, all look vaguely similar.
Oriental Whip Snakes (Ahaetulla prasina) A very common snake, and usually found in trees, but the last two I found were on the ground probably hunting lizards or frogs. The bright fluorescent greens in this snake are awesome, yes? These have a mild venom, but again, no serious results of envenomation have occurred in humans. Other color variations: yellow, very light green (A. mycterizans), grey, brown.
Venomous and Deadly Common Snakes
Malayan Pit Viper (Calloselasma rhodostoma) A very dangerous pit viper with strong necrotoxic venom which is potentially deadly. This common brown pit viper is the cause of death for more people in Thailand than any other snake. It bites quickly and is lazy to get out of the way if you’re walking toward it, usually it just lays still. Always found at ground level, and often on top of, or just under leaves. Maximum length – about 1 meter long.
Monocled Cobras. Be especially careful of cobra snakes which can spit venom 2-3 meters away (farther with a strong wind!). They can temporarily blind you as they make their getaway, but the problem is your eyes will be burning until you can flush them with water for 10-20 minutes, and visit the hospital to ensure they are properly cleaned. Photo above (click to enlarge) is of the Monocled Cobra (Naja kaouthia)
Red-necked Keelback (Rhabdophis subminiatus) Brightly colored snakes that become more so when agitated. These brightly colored snakes are found in captivity across the globe. They were previously considered non-venomous and not dangerous until recently. Death has occurred as a direct result of envenomation from this species, though not in Thailand. In Thailand we have had a number of close calls. Renal failure after bites is one of the possible potentially deadly outcomes.
Malayan Krait. Kraits are snakes active by night for the most part. The Banded Krait and the Malayan or “Blue” krait are both deadly snakes – the former with yellow and black bands about the same thickness, and the latter with black and white bands, the black bands are thicker near the neck, and more evenly spaced farther down on the tail.
Small-spotted Coral. There is one coral snake worth mentioning, not because it’s all that common, but because it tends to be around the gardens – even in potted plants. This is the “Small-spotted Coral Snake.” It is very small – around 35cm as an adult, and it looks harmless enough. It should be considered dangerous – deadly.
Page Updated: 6 September 2016
May 2015 – Gearing Up for Thailand Snake Field Trips (Herping)
It is May and the snakes are hatching all over the country. Where I live here in Southern Thailand we have some of the best herping in the country, and the world. I have to be reminded of that occasionally because I start to take it for granted sometimes.
I’ve been seeing hatchling and very juvenile, even neonate, C. rhodostoma and C. radiata on the roads fairly often. Those are the two I usually see as the snake herping season begins in Thailand. I’ve seen my usual share of rat snakes – P. korros primarily, and everywhere, and just one big P. carinatus at the top of a small mountain on top of a pile of fallen branches.
Frogs are out in full-force already. We’ve had one really good rain since the rainy season began back on Thai New Years (early May), and a number of smaller, spotty rains. They all help to get the frogs reproducing.
The hills are alive with the sound of Calotes emma scampering around the mostly dry leaves in the rainforest. I have definitely seen more this year than any year previously at this time. I’m taking that as a good sign. Flying lizards too. They seem to be everywhere I look, as abundant as house geckos on the outside of our home at night.
I spied one big tokay at head level and about one foot from my face stuck to a wall at the top of a Buddhist temple shrine on a mountain. It was kind enough to stick around while I studied its fascinating pattern. If you’ve never really looked intently at it – it’s mesmerizing!
This year I’ve decided to really expand my focus to include other wildlife that I didn’t pay much attention to – Tokays and other geckos, flying lizards – Draco, frogs, centipedes, scorpions, tarantulas, and bugs – insects of all kinds. Really opening it up, right? I guess I I get a bit bored mid- and late-season while just focusing on snakes. I tend to catch the same species’ over and over and it does get monotonous at times. If I had some more fauna to focus on, I’d be less bored. So this will be a new beginning for me.
So, needless to state it, but I’m wildly optimistic about this 2015 Reptile and Amphibian Herping Season. I’ve got a couple of field trips planned now. Sisaket in the Northeast of Thailand is my next stop. I even have to make a trip out to Laos, so I’ll take a look around while I’m out there and see if anything jumps out at me. Malaysia is on the calendar – Langkawi, and possibly Penang.
I’ll be in Isaan next, so, if you’re in Ubon, Sisaket, Savannakhet, or Mukdahan and know where the snakes are – let me know!
Need a Snake Removed in Thailand? Call These Numbers.
There are a number of contacts you can call in Thailand if you need to have a snake removed from your home, yard, vehicle, whatever it is. The first call would probably go to the snake park guys in your area. They are happy to come and get whatever type of snake you have. Reasons are many, but primarily because the king cobras, monocled cobras, and kraits they keep for the shows eat a snake once a week. They are snake eaters and eat a lot.
(Page Updated: 17 September 2016)
Here are some phone numbers you can call for Thailand snake removal:
Bangkok, call Mr. Sompop Sridaranop at 089-0438455.
Chalong, Rawai, Kata, Karon Phuket, call 076-283346.
Chiang Mai’s Mae Sai Valley Snake Farm is about 15 km north of Chiang Mai. If they don’t want to come all that way to your home, they will know who to call instead: 053-860719.
Koh Phangan, call Stefan’s Rescue Service at 080-046-8457.
Koh Samui, call Samui Snake Rescue / Removal, Phil at 089-663-5085.
Krabi Town, call 090.157.8804 (English). We relocate and release all snakes in suitable habitat. We don’t trade snakes, sell them, skin them, pull their gall bladders out, or cut their heads off to drip blood on your newborn infant’s head. If nobody answers, call the emergency staff using 1669.
Phuket anywhere – call Ruamjai Kupai Foundation, 076-238364.
Phuket Kathu, Thalang, call the Wisarut Jaiton Kusoldharm Rescue Foundation: 076-246301 or 076-246599.
Thailand Snake Note – Where Are Snakes in Thailand?
Where are snakes located in Thailand?
The easy answer is just about everywhere.
Seriously, snakes in Thailand are all over the country from north to south, east to west. They are in the high elevation areas – mountains and hills, as well as the low elevation areas, and even inside caves (Ridley Racers). Snakes are as likely to be in the garbage area of your home as they are in a field.
Snakes are in the trees – vipers and tree snakes, cobras – including King Cobras, Mangrove Snakes, Oriental Whip Snakes are all in trees and bushes and like to be off the ground sometimes.
Snakes are in the water – though there aren’t many venomous types in the water, there is the sea krait and keelbacks love the water too.
Snakes are on the ground – the Malayan Pit Vipers and the Russell’s Viper are on the ground usually.
Snakes are in the AIR – This is kind of an exaggeration of course, but there are tree snakes that can jump from tree to tree or tree to ground, and cover long distances – as in tens of meters – or even hundreds of feet if they jump from a high enough place.
Snakes come into houses, apartments, and tents. Do be careful not to leave your doors or windows open without screens – especially at night.