So sad to see this forum so quiet. This is a beautiful specimen of a spotted house snake - Lamprophis guttatus Harmless constrictor that lives mostly on lizards and geckos and occasionally small rodents or birds. It's also sometimes called the spotted rock snake. More here: https://www.africansnakeb...
Definitely Puff Adder, Cape Cobra and Rinkhals, otherwise Boomslang (rarely encountered as they are quick to make an exit), night adders (very common but not deadly).
Nice find! Don't try handling the thing, it's not an easy snake to handle. They can be hot tempered and have a special trick where they slide one fang out the side of their mouth and pull back on their head to tag you. A bite from one is pretty nasty, though not deadly AFAIK.
Does anyone recall the details of the Port Elizabeth snake handler who died after being tagged by a Puff Adder - I recall it happened in the 80s? I heard it for the first time in 1989 while I was working at Reptile World in East London. I wondered if anyone had any information on that incident or if...
I'm afraid this is a public forum, people will post their opinions regardless. Perhaps ask a mod to delete the thread? Condolences to his family and friends.
Horrid experience, you must have felt a little off when you realised that a hot had just tagged you. I guess there weren't too many things it could have been with smooth scales, bright green etc. Dendroaspis is no joke. Anything shorter than 500mm is never easy to handle, particularly a climber. I o...
Actually this was an urban legend: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/darwin04.asp What was pretty dumb but true from that email though was the story of the guy who taped store bought bungee cords together and jumped a 70ft railroad trestle, and the one about two guys playing catch with a rattle...
I imagine it's possible, although not well documented for obvious reasons. Perhaps she's allergic to something tha the snake secretes or something on the snakes - do they rub oil or anything else on the animals for mites etc? What about substrate - it could more likely be substrate or enclosure rela...
This is an awesome post and a real credit to this forum. Thanks for posting! I haven't had the opportunity to visit Cote d'ivoire but I do have colleagues working there and will certainly ping you if I do end up going. Most of my travels have taken me to East Africa, India and the Caribbean with my ...
I found this article interesting where someone records their bite (it was a significant bite) - swelling but no major ill effects: http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1510152,1510152 I assume we are we still rather wary of these in that not alot is known about their bite? I for one don't want to...
That's a beautiul specimen. Amazing how similar it is to Dispholodus. Really glad you took the time to take a few pics, some good shots there, I'll likely never get to see one up close.