Asian Vine Snake

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 8:23 pm

This guy is designed for his environment of living in the trees. He is extremely long, which helps him reach out and travel between distant branches, and extremely skinny, which makes it easier to reach out to those branches, and also reduces his weight so that he is less likely to cause slender branches to dip or even collapse under his weight. He is venemous, but only mildly so. Reportedly in humans, his bite causes pain and numbness, but little more. I still don't think I'd try it out, though!

This guy was up at the front of his enclosure, which is the only way I could get a good view of him, but it also meant that each and every tiny fleck on the glass of his enclosure showed up on my RAW file. I cloned most of 'em out, but finally lost my patience and posted this as is!

captive subject
180mm macro lens
flash as main light

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:42 am

The flecks on the glass are not to obvious Mike since the snake itself draws a great deal of your attention. One thing that I seldom notice or never notice I should really say, is the slits in the eyes of these reptiles. Some are horizontal while others are vertical, also the shapes can be somewhat different with some having smooth distinct outlines and others irregular in shape with distinct outlines. Beautiful creature and looks to be "smiling" for the camera. Great shot and unusual comp.

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 10:38 am

Now this character really does posses character! Love the expression and the aristocratic overlapping top lip.

I really like this pic

Bruce

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 4:35 pm

Saw these for sale at the last reptile show I went to. Boy are they long and slender execpt for the larger head they have. Excellent photo Mike.

Adrian · Post by **Adrian** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:48 pm

awsome very nice.

tpe · Post by **tpe** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:51 am

A really beautiful animal, and a great shot, the patience paid off. My son was trying to persuade me that he should have a snake, it looked very much like this but was insectivorous, could they be the same species, or do you happen to know a similar looking snake that is?

tim

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 12:03 pm

tpe wrote:A really beautiful animal, and a great shot, the patience paid off. My son was trying to persuade me that he should have a snake, it looked very much like this but was insectivorous, could they be the same species, or do you happen to know a similar looking snake that is?

tim

This is a tropical snake, and tropical snakes of similar type to this, (long skinny body, green coloring, and large eyes) are very common--Living in trees and preying on small frogs, lizards, baby birds is a good way to make a living in a rain forest, and something evolves to have that job in most every part of the tropics. All of them I'm aware of are venomous (admittedly not usually on the same level as rattlesnakes).

See these photos:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... c.php?t=58

(the following one isn't mine)
http://www.jdmpics.com/long-nosed-snake-1.htm

I'm assuming your son is not an adult--If so, my advice would be that he not keep any poisonous snakes! I don't keep snakes myself, but this fellow has written a brief article suggesting good snakes for beginners:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... nakes.html