This nine-inch-long baby yellow-eyed pit viper was still trying to strike at me while I was studying it to identify it! Photo: Huber, 2015
This really is an urban jungle! I give you fresh exhibit A.
My teleworking today was severely disrupted when I went for a mid-morning break, cleared a few leaves away on our deck and was confronted by a baby green pit viper!
I did not know what it was, but as it kept advancing and striking, I thought I should capture it as it was dangerous to have around. (That’s the South African in me!)
After maneuvering it into a glass holder mid-strike, it was identified to be a large-eyed or yellow-eyed pit viper. It is venomous and its venom is both haemorraghic and necrotic. Nice, so you bleed out and then rot!
The staff on our compound were quite clear when I walked about and asked their advice: “Bite! Dead! Very bad!”
At first I though it would be cool to show C, but since decided that we don’t want him scared of playing in the garden. He has always been appropriately careful around snakes in any event.
We have been unsuccessful in trying to work out what to do with it. It’s not very comfortable trying to work with the viper keeping an eye on me! (And vice versa. My discomfort rose when I suspected that I might have been a bit generous in the size of the air vent I’d made, as the viper made its way up the side of the holder!)
We tried contacting The Snake Farm, which would have taken it to produce anti-venom to treat the many people who get bitten by pit vipers each year — Jay tells me this snake accounts for 40% of bites! Unfortunately it is closed through Monday for Buddhist holidays.
Turns out the final solution is going to be a Bhuddist one: our compound manager is going to take Master Viper far it into the countryside and release it by a stream.
P.S. Here’s a handy dandy guide to snakes of Thailand that I have bookmarked for possible future reference.
No responses yet