Okay..so this post has been waiting to be blogged about for a few days now, but it’s going to be WAYYY worth it…if you stick around.
So basically just a few days ago, a group of 3 came to Las Cuevas – they were trapping/studying small mammals. Except one of them was heavily into herps (reptiles and amphibians – more so reptiles)
So I find out that the morning after they get here, Matt, the “herps”guy that came w/ the mammal people, had found a freakin Fer de lance the night before. A FREAKING FER DE LANCE!
Let me give you a background about these guys if you haven’t wiki’d it yet. Fur de lance or Bothrops asper, is one of the most deadliest snakes in Central America. This is the snake most responsible for the majority of the snake bites that have ever occurred down here – and they’re venom is well…can be lethal (most likely). Just wiki it and see the picture of the 11 yo boy who got bit on his leg and didn’t receive proper treatment (picture is of a two weeks lapse after getting bitten) it’s pretty freakin insane. Or as the Brits say, “mental.”
Anyway, they caught that and so there was a “photoshoot” with it the next day! It was only a baby, however I’m sure you’ve heard how much more potent a baby venomous snake is since it doesn’t know how much venom to release in it’s prey or predator. So here are some pictures we took of it:
Pretty crazy huh? It just looks evil. Haha.
And then, Matt (same guy) comes back from doing mammal trappings up in the 50 hectare plot and returns with a bag with a freaking EYE LASH VIPER! What the?!?! Even my advisor hasn’t seen one of those here. And she’s been coming here for past 4/5 years! Talk about luck huh? Daymn this guy’s on a roll! Haha. But we decided to not do a photoshoot of it yet, so we kind of waited.
But then here comes Sam, who’s working on frogs too (but different project) and tells us of a Mussarana up where one of his frog ponds are. So we trek up this random trail to find it. And it’s FREAKIN HUGE! Mussarana’s are pretty docile though…they have fangs, but they’re in the back of their mouth (known in snakes as proteroglyph). So Susanne went and picked it up. See how big it is:
We took a few photos of it later…but back to the eye-lash viper!
When we return from picking up the Mussarana, Paul (one of the herpers with our group) prepares for the “photoshoot” with the Eye Lash Viper. I only have pictures of it when it’s in the bucket because I wasn’t around when the actual photoshoot took place, so here are some pictures of it:
So yeah…it was a pretty intense snake day…but I’m not done. Haha.
Since Menemsha and I weren’t feeling 100%, we stayed behind and did the pond right next to us, where the Fur de lance was found..and subsequently returned (don’t worry…we knew where on the trail it was and we easily avoided it).
Anyway, we saw a few cool small snakes there too (that were harmless). I actually got a few really amazing photos of one Cat-Eyed snake eating frogs eggs (sad, but cool). Here are some pictures of that night, including some good ones I took of an amplexis pair of Morelet frogs:
We ended up finishing early because Menemsha wasn’t feeling well again…but when we got back..there was a PUNTA PARTY!!!! Hahaha. And our other team finished pretty early too and joined in the fun:..
I’ll put a few good photos in there. Haha none too incriminating. =P
So yeah…that was snake day….which was basically one of the best days EVER.
The next day 2 of the coolest people here left: Tom and Sofia. They were part of the Botany team from Oxford Uni. We will miss them dearly.
Also, we had the photoshoot with the Mussarana – so here I am trying to handle the big snake. =D (don’t worry..it’s TOTALLY harmless and docile). It even took a big dump right in front of us…just a few minutes before taking these photos. Haha:
So that’s it. Sorry for such a dry spell in posting. The internet/generator comes on whenever it feels like. So we’ve just learned to deal with it.
Jus a few more days out here…I’m happy to be going home…but at the same time sad that I’m leaving this amazing place with so much more to explore. Maybe I’ll get the chance to come back and do more stuff. We’ll see.
Dunk it,
Mark.
