snakes hunting

8.5.11 Everglades National Park - 1 Python

 

Tonight I had the honor of accompanying a veteran Python Hunter (he holds Python Permit #1 for the National Park) and a Biologist from Denison University to the Everglades National Park (on a separate note, I heard from Skip Snow that I have been approved for the National Park Permit... WooHoo!!!) It was a great time and I thoroughly enjoyed the education from both. Of course, I think they intentionally choose to call every snake we saw by their scientific names just to tease me. LOL, a faccia-what? I just nodded. :) We saw a lot of snakes, ranging from Ribbon Snakes to Banded Water Snakes (saw a lot of these), but unfortunately we didn't see any Pythons. We stopped to walk around, and I have to admit, I was a bit unprepared compared to my comrades, for the mosquito attack that happened for the next 30 minutes. I will be better prepared next time. I did find a snake as we were walking around, a Florida Kingsnake.

We called it a night around 1:00 am and started for home. A few miles away from the Everglades National Park, and outside of the WMA's we came across a 3.5' Python in road. We stopped and jumped out and it was obvious right away that it had been hit by a car, but it was still alive and instantly struck out in defense when grabbed. We bagged it up, and it will be dropped off, most likely to be euthanized so it doesn't suffer. This snake was most likely born last year.

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THE HUNTING

 Thailand Snake Journal – Snake Hunting is Rough Lately

We spent a few hours pulling these out of trees in the mangroves in southern Thailand. Great FUN! Mangrove Snake - Boiga dendrophila melanota - mildly venomous, rear fanged.

If you’re going to come herping in Thailand and you’re wondering what months not to come, I can tell you.
November – March.
By November the whole country starts cooling off. While the snakes don’t go into total hibernation for the most part, they do get awful sluggish and some don’t move for months.
If you’re paying for someone to take you herping in Thailand you are better off coming during the May – September timeframe. Even October is usually quite a bit better than November. Keep in mind that if the cool weather comes early (80′s F) the snakes will get harder to find – and sometimes impossible!
Usually I don’t go hunting for snakes in November to March – there is just no point in it. This year a number of people have been in contact with me to go herping with them, and we did spend hours in the field looking. Picture walking for hours and hours from 7pm to 10-12 midnight – prime time for snakes – and finding nothing. These spots were the most productive that I know during other months. During these months – we found scorpions, geckos, millipedes, spiders, monitors, and tree marsupials.
I’ll be doing little herping after December 10th – as that’s when the last batch of guys is coming to give it a shot. Hopefully I’ll have something to show you soon!

Thailand Snake Note: Henning

I met this guy “Henning” through this site – he sent me an email requesting ID of a juvenile snake that we figured out after a couple days… a juvenile sunbeam snake. Now we’ve been writing back and forth many times and I’ve come to know him a little bit.
Henning is from Norway. He’s here in Thailand about 6 months out of the year.
Henning is an obsessed snake hunter – more than me. The guy puts more hours in snake hunting than anyone else in the country while he’s here. That is no exaggeration. The guy is phenomenal. He’s out in the field 12 hours per day sometimes!
He finds lots of snakes – he’s always sending me photos of what he found recently – even NOW when the weather is bad for snakes – he’s finding them. The guy has incredible luck – but, he’s tenacious. He keeps going until he gets the snake.
Early on – he got sprayed by a spitting cobra while hunting snakes in the jungle. He got a video of it too – one of the only videos on Youtube of such a thing. He ended up rinsing out his eye and getting to the hospital – they cleaned it – and he’s OK. Said it burned like hell though!
Henning’s spitting cobra got him in the eye video ->

While you’re at it – check out this slow motion video of this cobra spitting – DAMN.
Henning is in and around the Hua Hin area.
If you have a wicked craving to catch snakes in that area – hook up with him and go find some. I don’t think you’ll find someone that is more energetic and better at finding them than he is.
Now wait… that’s not all.
Henning is reckless as all hell. He was catching cobras before he knew what they were. Currently he’s trying to tame a Naja kouthia – monocled cobra – so he can hand hold it. I have warned him MANY times – and yet, the guy is not easily talked out of what he wants to do.
If you go with him on a snake hunt – don’t do like he does…! But do bring a video camera!
hahah!
He’s reading this I know – so I can joke about him and I think he’ll be OK with it.
If you want to go drunk snake hunting THAT is Henning’s specialty!
Seriously – the guy sounds like great fun – and if your passion is Thailand snakes and you live in or will be in that area of the country and want to go herping with him – let me know and I’ll put you in touch with him!