A good buddy and I took a drive out to the beautiful Lesoma Valley in northern Botswana on Friday evening to release a boomslang (Dispholidus typus) we'd caught that day inside a fridge in a nearby tuckshop (small neighbourhood store, often located in somebody's back yard). Lesoma Valley is one of my all-time favorite places on earth - well worth a visit if you find yourself in the Chobe region and especially so if you're keen on elephants ( Jayjo ). I set up the nicer of my two cameras on a tripod in what I hoped would be the path of the snake as it left the container; it was between the snake and a patch of open water, which they normally find quite appealing after some time in a snake-barrel. (second part of the footage is from this cam) Unfortunately, the bastard decided to turn and come straight back at us. This meant that the only useable footage I got of the release was from my hand-held cam, mounted on a telescopic selfie-stick. The surface of the valley is quite sandy, and the snake had a hard time gaining traction - fortunately for us. On the bright side, he didn't head for the vehicle, which these guys in particular are fond of doing. We often get called out to remove them from engine compartments. Boomslangs are back-fanged and their venom moves down grooves on the outside of their fangs as opposed to being injected as in most other venomous snakes. Some folks would have us believe that boomslangs therefore have a hard time inflicting a serious bite on a human, that they have to "chew" on you for a while in order to deliver their potent haemotoxic venom. This is not the case at all - they're able to open their jaws to almost 180 degrees, and a single bite is all it takes. This one was a particularly beautiful specimen - note the bluish tinge. The second one with this colouring we've seen in the last few weeks. Very cool.
from Liveleak.com Rss Feed - Search results for 'fail' http://ift.tt/1CGWwpg
v
from Liveleak.com Rss Feed - Search results for 'fail' http://ift.tt/1CGWwpg
v
***Brutal Scoped*** Snake-Release FAIL
Views:
0 comments:
Post a Comment