enjoy!

Welcome to Lamma.com.hk, Goatee Toni!

We're very happy to welcome a herpetologist in this forum, as snakes are a frequent, recurring subject in our forums, especially in the Flora & Fauna section. An Animal Conservationist will also fit in very well on Lamma, even though most of them here focus mostly on pets.

We're also very glad to welcome more people living in Sok Kwu Wan and we'd love to have more members from your side of the island. Paul the Butterfly Man in Sok Wu Wan has been featured in the Lamma-zine on the home page before, also the China children photographer. Looking at your amazing photo gallery and website, you might be next to be featured!

This was the most impressive photo I found while quickly browsing through your photo gallery on your beautiful website at http://www.GoateeToni.com, captioned "Anaconda bite, luckily it's a young one this time". Well, they're not poisonous but having the peace of mind to actually take a photo of this nasty bite...

http://www.goateetoni.com/gallery/v/snakes/087.JPG.html

Hey, tell us more about snakes on Lamma Island, Toni, a topic many of our members are quite worried about!

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Great - first a frog lady now a snake guy. Nice site. Look forward to seeing more photos of reptiles.

"Frog Lady & Snake Guy"

Doesn't it sound like a Lamma love story?
Or a Hong Kong horror movie...

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more like the bollywood style horror ..with some frog leap karate moves mixed in !! =))

usi, you might be right as I know almost nothing yet about Bollywood movies.

But frog and snake styles of Kung Fu have been famously and expertly displayed in such memorable masterpieces of HK cinema as "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" - Jackie Chan's breakthrough flick - and "Kung Fu Hustle" by Stephen Chow Sing Chi. He was almost defeated by the long-distance deadly power jumps of toad style Kung Fu by the movie's ultimate baddie, till he was defeated and squished flat like a toad by the Buddha Palm style in the Matrix-style climax of the movie.

Before you're asking, yes, I'm a fan, just a little bit...

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here comes probably another style of horror. but i say its natural

The gecko looks remarkably happy considering its circumstances - "Yeah, yeah, win some lose some"

toni, tell us more about snakes on Lamma!

Got any pictures of local snakes?

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Excellent

Glad to share some about our legless buddies here.

the first one is a local snake - Multi-banded krait ,Bungarus multicinctus.
usually timid, not aggressive but possesses a powerful neurotoxic venom. From my experience, it's dangerous even to hold this serpent right behind its head as its neck is very flexible which allows them to twist and bite with 1 fang on my fingers. For me, the smaller the more dangerous.. especially when the snake's head is smaller than my fingers. it would be very difficult to hold and easily get slipped. Could be bitten without knowing it. This species is known to have caused several human fatalities in hong kong. It is also who killed joe slowinski, an american herpetologist.

the second one is a Wagler's pit viper, not a native species but a close relative of our common local snake, White-lipped pit viper.
This snake is the most common local hot snake. Often encounters with people and causes snakebites, and thus often killed by people. A serpent is bright green doesn't mean it's so dangerous. Actually this species has a not-so-powerful hemotoxin but you might not want to get too close as bites would still be painful and cause swelling.

here comes another local serpent

Great pictures, Toni, and welcome to the forum if you are new. I have yet to see a King cobra, but I came across a Chinese cobra (about 5 ft long) eating a toad recently. The snake had just captured the toad and was incapacitated for a few minutes swallowing it so I got a good look (and a few terrible pictures). After the toad was partway down, the cobra gave me a flash of his hood and was gone. It was absolutely amazing how fast it could move.

I have heard a number of people claim to have seen King cobras on Lamma, and heard others say that only Chinese cobras are found here - can you say what the correct position is?

I was just out doing a frog survey with the AFCD herpetologists the other night near Sok Kwu Wan, and according to they, who have been surveying here for years, there are only Chinese cobras. They would love to know if anyone sees a king cobra.

My suspicion is that the term "king cobra" may be used rather loosely to refer anecdotally to a large cobra, rather than to one possessing all the diagnostic features. According to the reptile book I have, only Chinese cobras occur here.

have never really seen king cobras here in lamma. actually not common in hong kong. i only encountered this species for several times in tuen mun, yuen long, tai po and lantau.

Several weeks ago saw the last 4' of a very large snake disappearing over a wall & have been perplexed ever since........... couldn't work out the colouring.

Automatic supposition was Rat Snake.......... but having seen the image above...... the colouring & markings were very very similar.

Rat Snakes come in a variety of shades......... do they come in the same shades as the chap above ?

Where was the cobra photo taken? I've got a great one taken in a Vietnam toilet that looks pretty similar.. We cut its head off in the end.

Why?