Snakes and Reptiles in Thailand

by Owen Jones

May 16th. 2011

My wife killed a small snake that must have got into the house at night through the gap between the french doors. It was about 225 cms long, olive green on top and cream underneath with blackish spots on the cream. There was also some red on the underside.

I am pretty sure that it was a young Striped Kukri snake. They are not poisonous, but this one died because it surprised my wife in the bathroom. It has also brought her to the decision that we must only sleep on the bed for the foreseeable future because when it is hot, like now, we sleep on the cool tiled floor of the living room.

12th. May 2011

My wife was walking past a tree in her mother's garden and looked up into it to check for the last mangoes out of habit. She spotted a bright green snake on a lower branch and it was watching her. When their eyes met, it dropped ten feet to the ground and hurried away 'very quickly'.

She identified it from photos as a Pope's Pit Viper which is 'venomous and dangerous'. This was a small one at about half its full size of about 33 inches.

March 25th 2011

I was at my mother-in-law's house this morning and her son came back for lunch. He works in his family's rice fields. He was keen to show me two new pets that he had caught a few days ago as he knows that I am interested in wildlife.

He took me to a concrete ring that they use for storing live food like fish, crabs and other aquatic animals.

Inside were three turtles - two adults and a baby.

The photo is not brilliant (literally too), so I have had to lighten it artificially slightly, but you can clearly see mum with junior on her back. I think that they are Rice-field Terrapins (Malayemys subtrijuga) but the adults looked bigger than the 21 cm max size it says in the book - more like 30 cms.

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