The snakes have a few friends among humans at Orange County, Kabini; we are a team of five naturalists constantly rescuing snakes from this resort, and relocating them farther close to the jungles.

An Amazing Russel’s Viper!

We sometimes have to rescue them in the guests’ presence. We take this opportunity to try and turn these panic-stricken guests into conservationists!

Many of our guests have come to regard snakes with respect, while they believed in getting rid of them earlier. After literally watching us handle snakes, and acquiring more knowledge about them, a few have been writing to us telling us of having sighted snakes, shooting their videos and having a wonderful time in the process. What more can a Naturalist ask for?

From approximately 260 species of snakes found in India, only 50, fortunately, are venomous, and out of these, only four species have potent venom that can be fatal! Here at Nagarahole, the commonly found snakes include the Spectacled Cobra, Russel’s Viper, Saw-scaled Viper and Common Krait.

Feared, Yet Respected: the Cobra!

Russel’s Vipers and Kraits, being nocturnal creatures, are only spotted occasionally. Saw-scaled Vipers are also rare to spot and their habitat is arid, which is why they are not sighted at the resort. The only real threat is from the Cobras. Ironically, our fear of these snakes is lower than the anxiety they have about us!

Other non- venomous snakes include the Common Trinket, Common Kukri, Russell’s Kukri, Dumeril’s black-headed snake, Bronze tree snake, Green vine snake, Rat snakes, Checkered Keelback, Buff Striped Keelback, Ornate flying snake, worm snake, Elliot’s shieldtail and Iridescent Shieldtail, Green Keelback, Red Sand Boa, Banded racer, Common Wolf Snake, Barred Wolf Snake and Travancore wolf snake.

Hence the next time you spot a snake, watch it intently and try and capture it on camera. Call a Naturalist, to learn more about it. Also, write to us about your experience. We will be thrilled!

Happy ‘snaking’!

Vineeth M

Hailing from Mysore, our district headquarters, Vineeth is an Engineer by profession, but a naturalist by vocation.    Read More...

This entry was posted on Monday, September 27th, 2010 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Carnivore, Predators, Reptiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.