Ultimate pit viper - top view, Tatama National Park, Colombia
Here's a way to kick start a very early morning. Our guide Manuel, restless as always, was searching for reptiles in the night whilst we were asleep. He found this highly venomous pit viper and trapped it below a pan, to show it to us a few hours later.
This species has a notorious reputation. It is responsible for the majority of snake bites in Colombia and surrounding countries. Fatality rates have dropped a lot in recent times, but isn't zero in Colombia. Surviving a bite can still mean very serious injury. For example, a local girl working in a restaurant we saw was bitten as a child in her foot. I'll spare you the details of how her foot looks like now.
The local custom is to kill this snake on sight, which is why our guide did not tell any park ranger about it. Front view:
Side view:
"Bothrops asper" is a highly venomous pit viper species ranging from southern Mexico to northern South America. Sometimes referred to as the "ultimate pit viper", these snakes are found in a wide range of lowland habitats, often near human habitations.
comments (4)
Much later in the day, long after we took this shot and we let it go, our main guide did tell the ranger about the finding, and he acted upset from what I can tell (it was in Spanish).
It's quite a dilemma to wrap your mind around. I consider myself to be a naturalist with respect to all living beings. It's too easy however to judge. I'm just visiting, taking a picture, and then leaving. I don't deal with the actual danger. You have to imagine living there every day with this kind of danger at your door step and young children running around. You don't have to agree with kill on sight in that case, but to me it makes the position much more understandable.
The problem with this snake is its tendency to settle near or in human territory. As said, it's responsible for the majority of all snake bites in a number of nations, and in some of those nations, most of those bites happen indoors. That's a very scary thought, to say the least. Posted 7 years ago
However, it would be similar to Rangers killing Tigers or Lions because this big cats may preys on humans! Posted 7 years ago
First, the park ranger in this case is mostly a birder, not necessarily a general naturalist. So he has no direct motivation to protect a deadly snake, more likely the opposite. The snake is a threat to both his family and his main income.
Second, the nature of the threat is different. In general, African carnivores do not seek out human settlement, they avoid it. You'd tend to experience them from the safety of a jeep at some distance. If we were to make this comparison fully accurate, it would mean lions actively approaching human settlements. Or perhaps finding one under your bed. Very few people would want to live with those kind of fatal threats every day.
Either way, this is a typical example of a human - animal conflict where it's really hard to judge who is right or wrong. Posted 7 years ago