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Playing Snakes & Ladders
3rd species of Coral Snakes seen at my backyard within a month! And this one is a much rarer species that is highly sought after by Herpers.
When I first saw this Snake, it was not moving and I didn't think of it as a Coral Snake as the top is light brown/grey with lines and spots of black. At that time, I didn't see the tail yet but when I approached closer, it was probably spooked out by my torch, it started to flips over to play dead, being it's defensive move. As shown in the picture, the segmented markings are striking and by now, the red tail was obvious.
Still, I wasn't sure of it's ID as not familiar with this snake, and I was thinking it could be a 'mimic' species that is harmless. It continued to play dead, and when I try to move it with a stick to get better view of the head, it keep hiding its head and very shy.
This was another amazing close-encounter and I get to play Snakes & Ladders with it :D
''Calliophis gracilis'', is a species of coral snake in the family Elapidae.
comments (9)
During this Pandemic period, I get to spend more time to explore just the surrounding hills nearby. :)
Went back 2 days later with photographer friends but couldn't find it anymore. They are known to be terrestrial, but at the same time, they do burrows themselves into the soil and thus not out in the open or visible. This one did tried to burrow itself into the soil to hide, and I had to gently hold it back, hence I mentioned 'playing' with it :D Posted 3 years ago
Many critters that I have been wanting to see before and went to Borneo to look for them without success and over the last 1 year, I found many of them at my 'backyard'.
And more interesting, during this period, have discovered more than 10 species new to science and at least 1 could possibly be in new Genus. But unlike your discovery of the new Orchid in your recent trip, this findings will take several years before they get named. Posted 3 years ago