RC India

what a sight it was

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do-VuIMIu4Y&feature=related

hi augustinev
are these dangerous? do they present a common problem? or this a rarity in your area.
regards
don

 :o its like national geographic out there :o scary !
And from what they seem to be doing, you are going to have many more snakes pretty soon :-\

Come over to the North East Sir, plenty of 'em waitin' for you here...............!

Well done Vineet! Splendid video! :thumbsup:

Don

Where i stay , has the largest concentration of poisonous snakes in the world, yeah they are poisonous and extremely long ones, they stay at my house, in an ant hill, they leave in the morning looking for rodents and come back just after sunset, here they are revered , they say the new cloth that is put on dancing  snakes is supposed to bring you good fortune. i didn't do that though, it is kinda peaceful co-existence.

SLS

Yeah, they already have a lot of offsprings, like cats, after a while they find a new dwellings for them i think, because after sometime you don't find them. this was just a dance i guess, i dont think they were mating, (Not obvious to my eyes atleast unless they are ??? really tiny ;) you know what i mean)

VC

...in some monkeys shadow ?

+1 Gusty!

What does one do if one of these bites you? Is anti-venom available there?

They look like 'Rat Snakes' to me which are long, scary but non venomous. Could be common Indian Spectacled Cobras as well, but they are found in more dryer places, not Rain abundant, humid Meghalaya (King Cobra, may be!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ujjwalis/4494907724/in/set-72157623325168277

Army men always live in such scary places. I remember my moments with a Viper in the bathroom when I visited my Aunt stationed in a remote Radar station on Bihar-Bengal border!

Snakes are common these days with humans encroaching into their habitat. Iv seen quite a few near my house. And a baby cobra too. Went to check it (from a distance) out and it hissed right at me. Ran for my life :D

yes in our hospital it is available, every once in a while someone gets bitten, i have seen only  one death case here, was bitten form bar to home

I know how economical liqueur you get in the canteen/officers mess !!!

they are poisonous, i have done jungle survival course (One of the toughest, physically) , sorry to say, eaten them too, from nose to the eyes a poisonous ones has only three scales, (Non poisonous ones have more) only poisonous ones have hoods, laymans way of recognizing the dangerous ones

amazing thrilled to watch it even in a video!

City boy.Never seen a snake yet. ;D

this is one animal that gives me the creeps.... but interesting fact is that a camera was handy when these two were out.

These are the rat snakes, and definitely not king or even cobras. And I beleive this picture was/is at KGP not Gusty's present location (correct me if I am wrong Gusty). And BTW even if these were the Cobra's the hood is used an agressive posture not during love.
Which course did u attend Gusty? India or abroad?

There are no venomous  snakes in our district, not a single hill, not even a forest.............  how unlucky i am , just reading abt an animal which i loves the most but hadnt seen ever..............

Oh no worries! These are totally non poisonous ones. We often find these dudes at our place.
Folks from Kerala call them "Chera" in Malayalam a.k.a rat snake in english.

They feed primarily on eggs, frogs, rodents ..not really interested in humans  ;D

The scaling of these snakes match that with Rat Snake. And I am 100% sure rat snake are non venemous (was bitten by one in my school days). I am not sure, but external feature like scale patter, color etc are often not indicators of a snake being venemous. Some non venomous species of snakes mimic camouflage or even Hissing/Rattle of venomous ones so as to scare potential predators/threat:
 
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/camoresearch.htm

The only indicators are the presence of 'Fangs' and venom glands. A typical bite from a Venomous snake would leave you with two 'Dots' ( .  . ) ...while that from non venomous snake  would leave a 'U' shaped mark, owing to bites from set of Teeth (Learnt in NCC).

FBC

in the jungles of Himanchal and Uttranchal, absolute isolation for 10 days, lived off the land, incl rodents, roots, flowers, stalks and insects and ants ( a tangy taste to it) , became veg after this course for 11 long years, out of sheer guilt of killing.

yeah it is at KGP. present location on the left could be misleading

True, very, Old Monk is like 50 :Rs:

A rather famous politician is supposed to have made a rather infamous statement way back in the sixties, "Assam, the land of snakes and Baruas", it didn't endear him to the population here then.

When you are talking snakes, The North East is home to them. Remember Uloopi and Arjun from the Mahabharat?

Can't say these are rat snakes (the "Chera" snakes common in Kerala), based on the rings that are visible in the video. Have seen quite a bit of them growing up in a village (still living in one!), none of them seemed to have these identifiable rings all along their bodies.

That said, the rings do seem to be less pronounced in the photos (as compared to the video).

oh man, we cant accuratly say what kind of snake it is, once in our temple , we encounterd a snake similar to a common krait..... since none of the villagers had ever seen a krait,  they called our neighbour , a police man who was working in forest department in another district(iduki). He said that it is not a krait but a clone of  the same family which has no venom............

ohm namshivaya

Colorization of these snakes could be quite deceiving, as they change as the skin get old and ready to be discarded.

Look at the snake's head in the Second pic above and compare with that by me below. The lining at the head is a positive match. Adding to it, the long a slender bodies are unmistakably that of Rat Snake. Not many other snakes have these two unique feature.

yes ujjwaana seems to be tru........

only two persons can tell us the truth : 1 - god, 2- the man who started this thread.......

let me go out and get bitten and see ....god !! most certainly !! no competition with him whatsoever !! :giggle:

All RC guys busy talking about snakes :D

.....and songs lol

I don't claim to be a herpetologist, however, it seems to be a either a Olive or Striped or a Checkered Keelback (Tropidonophis mairii) species. known in Bengal as a 'Dhora/ Joldhora' or a 'Heley' Shaap. Quite common................

I could be wrong though, the ambient light (and resultant recordings) can play havoc while trying to identify the species.

wingco sir,do u know to play the instrument called 'Magudi'? Lol

of course, but i heard, they are deaf and they respond to the Maagudi movement and no the music, dunno how far it is true

yeah..they don't have ears even their vision also thermal vision only..

So naive! Apparently you guys have not seen Hiss yet 8-)
they can see, hear, sing, dance, mutate into attractive women and take vengeance etc >:(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP0kFWeWF0c

only in movies !!

and a bottle of teachers scotch is around 700

Snakes and thermal vison???? Yes they do have weak vision but thermal?? Thats news.
Snakes sense of world mostly comes from thier sense of taste/smell and they taste and also smell with thier forked tounge.
Another falacy - Bite marks. Irrespective of venomous or not a snake bite would still leave you with two hypodermic needle marks.

Actually thats not new. I have seen this on discovery many times. Most species have infrared sensor near their nose which they use to collect thermal data, this information is overlapped with visual information from eyes buy the brain in such a way that they actually "see" that thermal information.
 

SLS oh that way you meant thermal vision, I was under impression that you meant they see thermally from the eyes.
What you have now said is exactly what I said. And yes that would be thermal vision (but not in true sense)
Additionally some do have thermal sensors (e.g. the pit of a pit viper)

The ones at Gusty's pics are rat sankes commonly called "Dhamin" in UP/Bihar. Common sites in a garden with trees and often sited trying to sneak in to birds nest to gobble eggs or hatchlings.  
I am no sepcialist in snakes but then learnt to handle enough from my NCC aeromodelling instructor who had a house full of them and even used to keep one Indian Cobra in his Lamby. The Indian Army did teach some more (including how to savour one and beleive me they are good if done up properly).  

+1

Capt, The VC pics are indeed 'Dorwa' , ie Water snake. It is much thicker, slower and fatter than slender "Dhaaman' or Rat Snake. concentrate on the scaling/lines near the nose....

this is one animal that gives me the creeps....

I had a Near encounter, While flying in a remote field, I was only looking at the plane, and by chance I happened to look below and saw a snake about 2 metres long moving across the field when it was just a few feet away from me. That sent a thrilling chill up my spine. We both were minding our own business luckily . ;)