Snakes and Reptiles in Thailand

 I am going to use these pages called 'Snakes and Reptiles in Thailand' a bit like a blog, in that I will try to document sightings I have had of snakes and reptiles where I live in northern Thailand. If you want to be informed when I update the web site, please click the RSS feed at the top of the left hand column and sign up for notification to be delivered to your desktop. It will probably be once a month or so. If you can with the identification of any of the animals I am describing, please let me know.

Snakes and Reptiles in Thailand

by Owen Jones

If you are interested in snakes, Thailand is a god place to be. i am no expert on snakes, but I started to take an interest, because I saw so many snakes killed for no apparent reason. They can't all be poisonous, I thought. So, I ordered a book from Amazon (see the left hand margin) and now people often come to consult me and the book on any snake that they have seen.

I think that there are about 100 sorts of snakes in Thailand. most of them are non-venomous, but there are about 15-20 deadly poisonous snakes. Snakes like the Siamese Russell's Viper, the Malayan Pit Viper, the green pit vipers like the Big-eyed Pit Viper and Pope's Pit Viper and the cobras like the Monocellate or Monocled Cobra and the King Cobra, the largest (up to 6 m) poisonous snake in the world with the most deadly venom of which it can inject up to 400 ml in a single bite.

Luckily, it eats snakes and is considered 'safe' if you do not upset it, although one local man was spat in the eyes 'by a large cobra' and he had to go to hospital.

Then there are a couple of dangerous pythons: the Reticulated Python at up to 10 m long and the Burmese Python at 6 metres. The book says of the Burmese Python that is attacks by ambush and adults must be considered dangerous snakes.

I have never see any of these serious snakes yet, but I did just miss seeing a 6 m Reticulated Python that was 'as thick as my thigh' because I was looking out of the wrong window of the car.

I like to go snake hunting when we walk in the fields, but I sill find snake identification difficult and you never can be too sure which are the deadly snakes and which are the non-venomous look-a-likes.

Anyway, on with the diary...

15th September 2010

I was sitting in a village shop drinking a beer when a long (2 m), fairly fat black snake started across the road right opposite me, it was moving quickly and about seven yards away.

I shouted for the shopkeeper and she said it was a non-venomous snake called a 'Fish Snake'. I said 'Oh, it eats fish then?' - 'No, she said, frogs and toads'.

It could have been a Sunbeam Snake (Xenopeltis unicolor).

Anyway, it veered off and disappeared into the undergrowth.

12th August 2010

I was sitting in my room when my wife called me outside. As I walked out the door, she stopped me, pointing at a three-foot, grey snake that was lying between her and the door and me and her.

Thais call them Lion Snakes and they hate them 'because they bite and kill'. I have seen them before but there are a few that are similar making identification difficult.

I think that it is the Chequered Keelback (Xenochrophis piscator: Flavipunctatus pattern). The book says of this snake's family, the Natricine Snakes:

"Some species possess rear fangs and deaths have occurred..." and of this species in particularly:

"This active snake bites fiercely but harmlessly...".

Well, maybe, but it was looking at us and not going anywhere. My dog jumped over it and neither the dog nor the snake cared. It just watched us.

So I got two cups of water and threw them over it. I think it liked the experience. It was about four feet away.

So I picked up two empty plastic spa water bottles (very light weight) and threw one at it. I missed badly and the snake did not move. The second one was going for the target when it reared up and like an expert wild western gunslinger, struck the bottle five times before it fell to the ground: tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

I have never seen anything so fast in all my life. Anyway, it bored with me after a minute of so and moved off..

4th July 2010

There was a scream from the kitchen as my wife walked in from hanging the washing out. 'Snake, snake!'.

I went to look but it shot under the washing machine. So my wife, Neem, turned it on to scare the snake out as we were actually on our way to a party.

We sat and stared at the washing machine, I with my snake book in my hand, waiting. After 20 minutes or so, a beautiful green head popped out followed by a four or five foot slender body. Pit vipers are green, so Neem is scared of all green snakes (well, all snakes really), but so are many others.

I did not have time to identify it before it headed for the door, hiding behind a sack of rice at the last moment. I took a broom and a mop and slowly pulled the sack and a few other things out of the way, exposing the snake.

It just lay there looking at me. Then, suddenly, reacting to a poke from the bristles of the broom it moved but so fast I could not see where it went, then it literally flew over the sack of rice with such force that its head was six feet off the floor and about two feet from mine.

I caught it on the mop and tried to fling it out the door in one deft movement, but its tail hit the door jamb and it came back inside.

This was all too much for Neem, who was sure that I had narrowly escaped a painful death. She called in the next door neighbour who speared it on a home-made trident and killed it with an axe.

I later found out that it was a Green Tree Racer (Elaphe prasina) and not dangerous to humans.

12th April 2010

My neighbour had had a garden party - a house warming party - and got up the next day a bit groggy to clean up. She opened the door and stood there surveying the bottles and dishes until she noticed something moving near her head.

She still had the open door in her hand, so she stepped outside completely and pushed the door to.

Then she saw it: a five foot tree snake was stuck to her front door, holding on by the outside door handle! However, it was holding on with its body too. I think it was a Golden Tree Snake (Chrysopelea ornata), one of Thailand's flying snakes.

It is not dangerous and my neighbour took it as a good omen. The snake slithered off after an hour or so, maybe it had gone up there for a gecko or something.

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