Funny seeing this today upon entering one of the cages.
Can you identify what it is around the lamp shade?
Tag: Thailand snake identification
Thailand Snake Identification Requests Way Down
The snake ID link on the right side column of this site is for anyone that wants to find out what snake they saw in Thailand during their stay.
Sometimes I can figure out what snake it is by the information given, and sometimes (usually) it’s a guess between a few different snakes. I’m not infallible of course, but I think it’s worth the effort to help allay fears that most people have over the snakes they saw.
Most of the time (85%+) the snake that is seen and reported through the Snake ID form – is probably not dangerous to humans. Rarely is it deadly.
By far, the greatest help is photos of the snake you saw. Send them to me at the email address listed on the right column. If you have time, and can do it safely – take a full body shot, take a head closeup from top and side. Estimate the length and thickness as best you can. Don’t forget to tell where exactly you found the snake – habitat and Thailand province.
The number of snake ID submissions went down a lot over the past week, while traffic on Thailand Snakes websites grew. This is the slow season for seeing snakes across the country. It’s getting colder and a lot of snakes are in a sort of hibernation. Not really inactive, but much less active unless they are mating.
On the other hand, I’ve been finding a lot of snakes lately. Apologies for not being able to post everything, I just have a lot of other projects to work on. Snakes are my fun time project. I don’t get all that much time for fun. If I have time – I go look for snakes, I don’t write about them here much.
If you have snake ID requests – check out this link:
Cheers,
Vern
300+ Snakes Identified at Thailand Snakes (.com)
In a way, I’m getting hammered with requests to identify snakes in Thailand. I think someone has to do it, and I’m glad I can help. I’m sure I’m wrong occasionally, but, for the most part the snakes are easy to identify from photos sent to my email account.
If you don’t have a photo you can still fill out this Snake ID Form to identify your snake. I didn’t count any of the 450+ form submissions and my replies as snakes I’ve identified, because really it’s an unknown without looking at the images directly. Even then – it’s sometimes guesswork.
Identify Snakes in Thailand Before You Pick Them Up
Just a warning to those that also love snakes. Please don’t pick up and hold a snake when you are not 100% sure of the exact species of snake it is. There are scores of venomous snakes in Thailand – some of which can kill you in under 10 minutes. It does not take a really strong bite to inject enough venom to cause you a very serious medical emergency. I have received about 10 photos over the last year of people holding a snake, and then asking me to identify the snake.
PLEASE DON’T DO THAT.
Even snakes that haven’t traditionally been called “Venomous” though in fact they are (Colobrids), can hurt or kill you with the right bite. Take into account also that your body could go into anaphylactic shock as the venom hits the blood stream and the body fights against it as it does an allergic reaction. Conceivably, if you’re allergic to the venom – you could die within a minute or so from an adverse allergic reaction to the venom – and that’s ANY venom, that which is considered dangerous to man, and that which isn’t normally considered dangerous.
Stay safe – this is the peak of the snake season. Keep your eyes open and get some photos when it’s safe to do so!
Thailand Snake Journal – Snake About 600 Feet Up Mountain
I climbed a mountain I often do – it’s very steep. There are steps up it – 1,237 steps. At about step 850 I saw a snake crawling between the limestone rock and the step. I thought I knew what it was, but it was a juvenile – and you know how that goes. Thailand snakes – when they are small, don’t always represent the same thing as when they are older – so I took my time, and ended up letting him get too far into a hole and lost him.
That sucked, but getting bitten by a venomous snake would have sucked worse.
It looked like an orange color… solid, muted – not bright. No pattern, no stripes, nothing to distinguish it. I have seen Indo Chinese Rat Snake adults that looked like this one, but in all I had about 6 seconds to identify it – and I decided it wasn’t worth the risk in case it was a coral snake. I’ve seen plenty of baby cobras – they all seem to be very dark, or even black as juveniles… still, I couldn’t risk it!
Oh well, there will be another snake, I’m sure.
So far on that mountain I’ve seen:
- 4 meter King Cobra
- Red Necked Keelback (far away from water, just way up the side of the hill – about 200 feet vertically maybe)
- Painted Bronzeback at the top of the hill (850 feet vertical)
- Brown Keelback on the steps – juvenile also
- Oriental Whip Snake
- A yellow snake I think must have been the Ridley’s Racer – it moved very fast into the hole in the limestone. I saw it for about 1 second.
- At the bottom of the hill I saw and caught a mock viper.
- The monks tell me they often see monocled cobras around the limestone where they live in their kutis.
Now, this might make that mountain seem like a great place to herp… but, this has been over the course of 4 years now and I’ve been up the thing nearly 800 times. Not such a good track record for seeing snakes then, is it?
Thailand Snake Note – All Thailand Snakes
I’ve started a page on which I hope to have listed for identification purposes all the snakes of Thailand, including venomous and non-venomous species listed by name, with photos and some more information. I hope to use this for identification when I’m out in the field because there are many snakes of the same species that have different coloring depending on where in Thailand they are located – and whether they are adults or juveniles.
Apparently there are over 200 species of snake in Thailand. My list now has 98 with photos, and my text list has 130-140 or so. Quite a task to bring all the known snakes into one list – and have photos for them too.
For now the page is password protected as I finish it.
If you have any images of snakes you found in Thailand and wouldn’t mind sharing them with the public – I will credit you with name, email, website, phone – whatever you wish to display.
Cheers!
Vern