From JT, who submitted the Cobra and Copperhead Racer pictures:
The location of the two images I posted are:
Chinese cobra (about 5ft adult) was in the sideway by our house in Pak Kok - he was disturbed by our dogs so was in full defensive mode, but made no aggressive strikes at us, just displayed and hissed as per the pic, and once I'd got the shot of him I moved over to the right and gave him an obvious exit into the garden and wilderness, which he took without further trouble.
The small copperhead racer was on the main path just up from Tannery Beach (where the new development of flats is) - these are more aggressive snakes when they feel threatened, and will strike and bite, but are constrictors, not venomous snakes, and will also make their escape very quickly if you move away and offer them a clear escape route, which is not difficult.
I have some info to share given the general inaccuracies that I've seen there and elsewhere on Lamma.com.hk regarding snakes. If you can add the following for me either on that group site or just on Lamma.com.hk site, that'd be great, thanks:
As a snake lover I've spent the last 20 years looking out for snakes on Lamma and dealing with them for people when they come into houses.
If you are a calm person who doesn't have an irrational fear of snakes, there is an easy method of getting them out of your house if they've hunkered down somewhere and don't want to move. Get your largest towel (or 2) and soak it with water, then hold it up by 2 corners with the bottom corners on the ground in front of you (like a toreador) and lay it/throw it over the snake. The darkness will calm the snake down (it will feel safer) and the cold water will reduce its blood temperature and make it slower/more torpid. An extra towel can be added over the area where its head is, then leave it for a couple of minutes - in my experience the snake stays put, feeling safe in darkness, and becomes calm and slow.
Get a bucket and then you can grab the snake's body gently through the towel - hold the middle/back third of the body where it is thickest - and pick it up smoothly and drop into the bucket. Have another towel ready to put over the top of the bucket for extra darkness, and the snake will stay put. You can then carry the bucket outside and off to an area of wilderness where you empty it out and let the snake escape.
This method works with rat snakes, bamboo snakes, pythons and cobras.
I have never had a snake strike at me through the towel.
Lamma has a number of venomous snakes - most common are the Chinese cobra and bamboo snake (white-lipped pit viper), much rarer are the king cobra, banded krait and many-banded krait. I've only seen 2 kings in 20 years here, and one many-banded krait in northern Lamma (they seem to be more common in the south around Sham Wan and Tai O).
The bite from a Chinese cobra or bamboo snake will be painful and require medical treatment, but no human has died from either for decades in HK, and the books say a healthy adult would not die even without treatment (my father-in-law was bitten by a bamboo snake, killed it, took it to the clinic, and was sent home to rest for a few days - they said the antivenom would make him just as sick as the poison so they wouldn't give it - he was fine after a few days).
Certainly babies and young children are different, so appropriate consideration should be made if they are involved, but overall it's important to remember a few facts:<OL COMPACT><LI>Snakes do not feed on humans, and we are vastly bigger than them, so in the event of a meeting, all they want to do is get away - give them a route of escape and they will take it 9 times out of 10.<LI>Studies have shown that in about 50% of bite cases NO envenomisation occurred, i.e. injecting venom with the bite - the venom is a precious resource for a snake (it takes some time for its body to process it) so it only uses it when it is in real fear for its life - if you're beating at it with a stick then it WILL envenomate as it bites, but if you've walked too close by accident it may bite and not envenomate.
(Of course, you shouldn't take any chances but go to the clinic anyway.) Therefore, DON"T panic, just minimise your movement and get help.<LI>If you encounter a snake, stop and step back a few paces - it'll leave with no trouble (the only time any of our snakes might chase a human is a female king cobra guarding her nest - but I've never heard of anyone seeing one in that situation - they are rare and very shy animals).<LI>Snakes come into our houses to hunt frogs and mice/rats - if you get rid of them then you're less likely to get the snake intrusions.
Cats are great for the mice/rats; frogs can generally be stopped from coming into the house with 6-inch planks of wood across the doorways.</OL>I once saw an old Chinese lady sweeping a Chinese cobra out of her kitchen with a broom - it was striking at the broom and very upset, but she wasn't bothered at all, kept the broom in front of her legs so it struck at that (the closest thing) and not her, and as soon as it was in the doorway it turned and fled.
These animals really aren't the unpredictable lethal monsters so many people think they are - they do in fact act very predictably, and are quite easy to deal with if you keep your head.
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