Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A Two-Minute Encounter

It was a rather cool morning and the air was laden with moisture, which made the walk very nice. I was trailing behind two old ladies and as I rounded the corner. I spotted a small light brown snake about 35 cm long crossing the road. I quickly grabbed the camera out of the backpack and approached it. To my surprise the dull snake changed color and iridescent red line appeared down its back along with black stripes. WoW! what a great visual transformation.This snake was a spirited too and it quickly went into defense mode. The classic "S" curve with body taut. It lunged at me twice in its effort to get away and gave me little chance to compose my shots. As I wasn't sure if my identification of this snake as the Striped Kukri was 100% correct, I chose to be cautious as I allowed it to get itself to the side of the road. Sometimes, the Banded Malayan Coral can be mistaken for the Striped Kukri. Kukris are harmless and the Malayan Coral are venomous, and care should be taken not to handle them. In this instance, best thing to do is stop traffic (if possible) and let the snake get out of the way on its own.

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