Remember this request for help in identifying a couple of snakes I've come across while driving through Mozambique?
Well, this morning one of the ladies at my work brought in a snake book and I finally managed to identify one of the beasts. There is no doubt in my mind that the snake in the first photo on the linked post is a FOREST COBRA (Naja melanoleuca).
The forest cobra is found throughout Africa and presents many color variations depending on the region, which is why, in my endless Google searching, I failed to identify it as a potential candidate. The forest cobras that are usually featured in internet photos are those from central and west Africa, which usually have spectacular banding, or are all black.
The variation of the cobra found in Mozambique, however, tends to be a light olivey-brown, with dark speckles increasing along the length of the body so that the tail is solid black. The snake has a light-colored underbelly, glossy scales, and is the second-largest cobra in the world!
I wish I had a scanner at work, because I'd show you the photo of the Boskobra (name in Afrikaans) that is in this book. It is virtually identical to the snake I photographed in the road, with the difference that the one in the book is hanging out in a tree (how supremely creepy - a cobra in a tree!).
When we stopped the car on the road to Boane to look at the snake, I was overcome by instictual fear. As long as the windows were up, I was cool. Kind of freaked out, but relatively speaking calm. Like being at the reptile house in the zoo. But the minute my friend rolled down my window to have a better chance at unobstructed photography, my entire body prickled in goosebumps, I screamed, and squished myself against the other people in the backseat as far as I could to get away from the window. There was something about that snake that provoked pure fear in my body.
Now, at least, I feel justified in knowing that I was looking at one of the continent's most venomous creatures.
Oh, and by the way, when I first posted this request for snake identification, my Dad guessed that it was a cobra. Nice work, Dad!
11 comments:
Man! How scary is that!
If you google "Boskobra" your blog page (this one) is the second hit. Amazing.
Dad
Ali, at a field site in the Sierra foothills near Yosemite NP, we had a snake encounter too. It was a baby Western rattler in a tree (a tree!) No one at work believed us, they all thought the picture was photoshopped.
As long as I'm not too close and I have a feeling it will go the other way, I'm not really afraid of snakes here in the US. I'm sure though that a cobra in Moz or an anaconda (jararaca, hehehee) in Amazonas WOULD freak me out.
Abraços,
Tracy
Mozambique and snakes. I remember it well. They were everywhere.
~Laundrygirl - Totally scary! I just hope I don't ever encounter one this big that is alive and well in front of me.
~Dad - I know. I already googled it looking for more photos and info. At least I know my nerdiness is legitimately inherited!
~Tracy - You remind me of two things. First, the nearly 6' western diamondback we found in the lawn in our house in Albuquerque when I was in high school. The firefighters had to come take it away; I will never forget that rattling. Second, also my freshman year, I went backpacking for 10 days in Philmont, in Northern NM. A boy there was bitten by a baby rattler!
I've seen an anaconda/sucuri in Mato Grosso do Sul, in Bonito. It was in a river we were snorkling in. To be fair, it was my mom and the guide who saw it, not be. Otherwise I think I'd have drowned!
~Shades of Blue - Oh, I just hope I don't have too many more run-ins with them...
OMG, that is indeed scary! I think the thing with cobras in trees is a fear generated by movies. There are dozens with snakes attacking from the tree. Oh, Jungle Book is another example :), to switch to a lighter note :)
I must say I actually rather like snakes. In all honesty I would absolutely freak out if I were to come face to face with a venomous snake, but I do love the none dangerous ones. In Mexico, I helped out once in some sort of snake rescue place, and had boa constrictors and pythons and other little ones curled all around me. Then I passed out (due to the heat though).
I LOVE the title of your post and feel so relieved to know that it's ok to embrace ones' nerdiness.
What are your thoughts on spiders?
I would love to love snakes but I somehow can't overcome the fear of snakes build in subconsciouses since childhood. In our childhood we were told by our elders not to utter the word "snake" (sanp in urdu) and say "rope" (rassi in urdu)instead, lest the snake come out from somewhere. Scary experience!!
you will henceforth be known as the snake whisperer. ;-)
~Alina - For sure, the movies don't help...but I have to say, I think there is some truth to the whole "art imitates life" half of the saying on this one! I've seen a fair share of snakes in trees in my days, unfortunately!
~Captain Cat - That's okay. We can still be friends even though you are *freaking out of your mind*!! :)) That snake place actually sounds cool. For as much as I am mortally afraid of snakes, I also don't believe in killing them.
Embracing the inner nerd is what I do every single day, at least once.
And spiders are okay in my book. Unless they are as big as my hand. Then I start to get the heebie-jeebies. Or if they are seriously hairy...
~Masd - I feel the same way about speaking a lot of my fears in life - as if the mere expression of the world would make it materialize. I find it interesting that the Urdu words for snake and rope aren't that far from the English ones.
~Rrramone - I am totally loving this nickname!!!
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