Interesting they are found in Kenya as well! When the snake first shot out in front of me, I thought it was a very skinny shiney Black spitter! Then when I got hold of it I though it could be a black tree cobra or black phase Boomslang hence the title of my post
. I had to open the mouth to see where its fangs were located or if it had fangs at all! I was still not convinced it was a Boomslang because of the back fangs being so much shorter then Dispholidus! Didn’t think too much about the eye color at the time because the snake it self was so pitch black! So I took my pics, measurements and scale clipping then sent the suspicious black snake back into the bush! I still told pythonodipsas that I had found a black Boomslang up here. I did my research once I returned to the office and discovered it to be a Thrasops! While handling the snake for photos etc. I found it to behave just like a Boomslang, very agile and just keen on getting away! It did inflate the throat and struck out a few times while holding the snake in a tree by the tale with one hand and and my camera in the other, but this can be expected and I would not call it aggressive. It is always a very exciting feeling to find a new species of herp and learn more about it!
On that note, if anyone has an old copy of Spawls & Branch Dangerous Snakes, I would pay a more than a fair price for it as it is one of the few reference books which I could use for Angola! Please keep eyes open and send me a PM if anyone wants to part with their copy, not that it would of helped me for the Thrasops thou!
An inaccurate naturalist is a pest and a danger, forever perpetuating illogical deductions and landing later naturalists in trouble. Damm and blast them all to hell in the most painful way. C.J.P. Ionides