BANDED KRAIT – VENOMOUS – DEADLY

These are yellow and black kraits here in Thailand. In some other part of the world (Borneo) they are black and white. There are also “Blue Kraits“ aka “Malayan Kraits” which are black and white. And the really incredible looking Red-headed Krait which looks nothing like either of them.

Bungarus Fasciatus (Banded Krait)

Thais say: (ngoo sam lee-um, or ngoo kan plong) This is a bit confused in Thailand where, in southern Thailand any viper is known as Ngoo sam lee-um. Lee-um means triangle, and so some people confuse triangle shaped heads of the vipers with triangle cross-section of the kraits.

Length: average 1.5 m up to 2 m (about 6.5 feet) In Thailand they don’t usually reach a full 2 meters.

Range: All over Thailand and most of Asia

Notes: I have yet to see a live banded krait in the wild, except a few dead on the roads – but I don’t go digging up ratholes or termite mounds. I may start if I don’t find one soon. I’ve been looking for three years to find a krait with yellow and black bands like these. At dinner last night I was looking around a small restaurant with many ponds, for snakes. I asked the owner’s son if they had seen any. He said, Ngoo Sam lee-um. That could be the one. I’ll get their permission for some late night herping and try to bag one. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it. This restaurant is located on a small hill close to sea-level in southern Thailand. There are many frogs at the ponds, and probably many snakes too.

Update 2015- I’ve been to that restaurant numerous times and not had a call from them about this krait. I am not sure they have been found in Krabi. I have never found road kill B. fasciatus here in Krabi. I have found a large 2 meter dead on the road banded krait in Surat Thani on the main highway leading to Krabi.

Habitat: This Thailand krait lives on the ground and in rat holes and termite mounds, under stumps or rocks and in other cool, damp places. Recently I saw photos of one in some limestone rocks here in Thailand. They prefer wide open areas near water. They have been found as high as 1,524 meters in Malaysia and about 2,300 meters in Thailand.

Active Time? The snake is mostly nocturnal and is quite active at night. Most bites occur at night, as the kraits move close to people sleeping – usually on the floor, and probably the person moves and the krait bites. More dangerous at night, during the day they are not biters. These kraits are common in the northeast Thailand provinces. Recently a six year old boy was bitten and could not be revived. The snake had come up into their home in Surin to escape some flooding.

Food: Other snakes almost exclusively – rat and cat (Boiga) snakes. In captivity I have seen them eat the following live snakes: Calloselasma rhodostoma, Chrysopelea ornata, and Gonyosoma oxycephalum. One noted herpetologist states that these kraits don’t like to eat water snakes. Will also eat rats, mice, frogs, lizards if snakes cannot be found.

Defensive Behavior: The banded krait is slow acting during the day, lethargic, and usually not interested in striking. However, it can protect itself quite well – it is a strong biter and has been recorded as killing a large type of cattle 60 minutes after a bite.

Banded Krait skull showing fangs, jaw, and other dentition. Skull located at Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute in Bangkok, Thailand.

Venom Toxicity: Very toxic. Deadly. This yellow/black banded krait from Thailand appears to have venom that is very toxic to humans. The typical LD-50 studies to assess the toxicity of venom in mice, rate this as a very toxic venom as well. These snakes rarely bite during the day, but if they do, they can transfer enough venom to kill you. I read about a person dying in 30 minutes, and another dying in 15 hours. A famous American herpetologist, Joe Slowinski, was killed by a baby krait (Bungarus multicinctus) in Burma while on a remote expedition. They can be quite deadly. The cause of death is that your muscles are paralyzed and your diaphragm can’t work any longer to pull oxygen into your lungs. Kraits are very deadly in this regard. However, if you are able to get to a hospital with a ventilator you will likely be OK. There is no specific antivenin for snake bites from this snake, but polyvalent venom is used – which can also treat bites from Naja kaouthia and Ophiophagus hannah.

Interesting to note… when fed on a live garter snake the krait venom acts instantly to cause death. Apparently krait venom is very efficient with snakes – the krait’s primary diet.

Handling: The banded and Malayan blue kraits are not known to bite during the daytime. However, at night time they bite rather easily, as evidenced by the numerous krait bites that occur at night to people usually laying down to sleep on the floor either outdoors or in their homes with the door open. I would never handhold kraits like the man is doing in the photo above. The krait venom is so toxic, it’s just not worth the risk – however small.

Update: I was contacted by a man who was bitten by this same type of krait during the day at an impromptu show at a bar in Bangkok during the daytime. It bit his arm. He was lucky to live, and had lingering effects for more than two years after the bite.

Antivenin:  Polyvalent. It is advised by experts to get antivenin in your blood stream for krait bites before you have symptoms because, once symptoms develop you may have lost nerve functioning that will likely not return.

Offspring: Mating in March-April and 4-14 eggs laid about 60 days afterward. The mother krait remains with the eggs for another 60 days before they hatch. Baby kraits are about 30cm long at birth, and have venom. I couldn’t find in the literature whether the mother left the eggs as they started hatching – so she didn’t eat them herself or not. The King Cobra does this instinctively because it also eats other snakes.

Banded Krait Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Elapidae
Genus: Bungarus
Species: B. fasciatus

Binomial name
Bungarus fasciatus
Classified by Schneider in year 1801

Photo of Two Adult Banded Kraits:

The Desert Horned Viper

The Desert Horned Viper

(Cerastes cerastes)

by Jay Sharp



The Desert Horned Viper – with its anvil-shaped head, satanic horns and cat-like eyes – has struck a chord in the imagination of those who have lived within its desert ranges, from northern Africa into the Middle East. For example, the snake played a prominent, and sometimes mystical, role in the history of the Egyptians, who embalmed Desert Horned Viper bodies, according to the Greek historian Herodotus. (The snake’s mummies have been discovered at the ancient city of Thebes, on the banks of the Nile River.) The snake’s icon stands for the phonetic sound “f” or “fy” in Egyptian hieroglyphics. A Desert Horned Viper may have been the species that inflicted Cleopatra’s fatal wound when that legendary woman used a serpent to commit suicide in the year 31 B. C., despairing over the imminent Roman conquest of her beloved land (an act immortalized by Shakespeare in Anthony and Cleopatra).

Distinctive Features

The Desert Horned Viper ranks as the most abundant and distinctive venomous snake within its range:

Size and shape: Typically just under two feet in length, robust and cylindrically depressed body, narrow neck, thick midsection, tapering tail.Head: Broad, flat and round-snouted, with center-ridged (or keeled) scales; forward-set moderately large eyes with vertical pupils (much like those of the Southwestern rattlesnakes); distinctive supraorbital horns (which may not always be present in all populations or even individuals); hinged hollow fangs that snap into a biting position when the snake opens its mouth.Color and pattern: Yellowish, brownish, reddish to grayish colors, often matching the color of the surface of the soil; darker and more or less rectangular patches along the back.

The Bite, the Venom, the Consequences

The Desert Horned Viper can deliver a bite that – while not usually fatal – can have serious consequences. The venom, according to a report published in the Oxford Journal of Medicine,has more than 13 different toxins—a witch’s brew of poisons that may vary in mix by geographical location within the reptile’s range. It causes conditions such as massive local swelling, acute pain, excessive bleeding (or clotting, depending on the blend of toxins), nausea, abdominal pain, sweating, exhaustion, kidney failure and heart irregularities. (Reportedly, the snake took a toll on French Foreign Legionnaires when those troopers occupied Algeria.)

Writer Peter David Fraser claimed that the toxins could also inflict mental disorders, severe headaches, paralyzed facial muscles, imagined evil smells and other “peculiar sensations.”

Clinical study, said the Oxford Journal, “has demonstrated the ability of C. cerastes to cause complicated and potentially fatal envenoming…”

Range and Habitat

The snake’s range essentially spans the Sahara Desert, from Morocco and Mauritania on the western side of the African continent to Egypt and Sudan on the eastern side. It also occurs in the southern reaches of the Arabian Peninsula. It prefers drier areas with finer and looser sands and occasional rock outcrops, especially at higher elevations with less harsh desert temperatures.

Diet

The Desert Horned Viper – like all snakes, a meat eater – preys primarily on lizards but also on mammals and birds that inhabit its arid environment. It often lies in ambush, just beneath the sand with only its horns and eyes exposed, poised to explode from its cover and strike its victim with stunning swiftness.

Behavior and Life Cycle

Most active at night, the snake spends its days sequestered in the sand or in abandoned burrows or beneath rocky outcrops.

As it moves across the fine, loose sand of its habitat, the snake travels by “sidewinding,” or sliding sideways, much like the Sidewinder Rattlesnake of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the American Southwest. In its sidewinding journey, the snake "looks something like a rolling spring and faces at an angle to its actual direction of travel: it appears to be headed in one direction while it is actually going in another," according to The Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. Its unconventional method of locomotion notwithstanding, the Desert Horned Viper “moves randomly over a large area” according to Snakes: A Natural History,edited by Roland Bauchot.

It buries itself by shimmying its body into the fine loose sand, which it uses not only as a cover for ambushing prey and protection from the midday sun but also as its setting for copulation.

After mating, in the spring of the year, the female lays roughly a dozen to two dozen eggs in abandoned rodent burrows or beneath rock ledges. (She may have stored the sperm in her body for several weeks before she lays her eggs, said Dustin S. Siegel and David M. Sever in the paper “Utero-Muscular Twisting and Sperm Storage in Viperids.”) Once she lays her eggs, they hatch after 50 to 80 days of incubation. The new hatchlings will average four to six inches in length. They become sexually mature in about two years. They may live for 10 to 15 years or more.

Life’s Hazards

Although its desert ranges rank among the world’s more harsh environments, the Desert Horned Viper has managed to sustain its numbers. As a species, it is not threatened. Among its enemies, however, are the large predatory birds and the Sand Cat (a small desert-adapted wild cat).

If threatened, the snake can produce a rasping warning sound, which it generates by rubbing together the obliquely-angled, saw-toothed scales along its flanks.

Close Relatives

According to the Oxford Journal of Medicine, C. cerastes has two close relatives. One, the horned and similar-sized C. gasperettii,occupies a range extending from southern Israel eastward across Iraq into eastern Iran. The other, the hornless and much smaller C. vipera, shares much of the same range occupied by C. cerastes.

Interesting Facts

The snake’s thorn-like horns comprise modified scales, said Chris Mattison, writing for The New Encyclopedia of Snakes.The horns have an uncertain biological function, although according to some naturalists, they may help protect the snake’s eyes in its sandy environment. The horns might also give the snake’s head an irregular silhouette, providing some measure of camouflage in the desert sand.If touched, the horns fold flush against the head, providing a streamlining that facilitates the snake’s passage through sand and burrows.The snake’s center-ridged, or keeled, scales trap early morning dew, providing at least a minimal source of fresh water, said Mark O’Shea in Venomous Snakes of the World.In some instances, the snake’s bite induces in its victim a sensation that the heart is being squeezed by a hand.The earliest known account of a treatment for the bite of the Desert Horned Viper, said the Oxford Journal of Medicine, dated from about 2200 years ago, when Egyptian physicians wrote that they believed that victims could usually be saved.This snake has a variety of other popular names, for instance: sahara horned viper, North African horned viper, African desert horned viper, horned desert viper, greater cerastes, asp, or simply, horned viper.

When, in Shakespeare’s immortal play, the clown delivered poisonous vipers to Cleopatra for her final act, he warned her, “…there is no goodness in the worm.” She held one to her breast and a second to her arm, allowing each of them to bite her. She died swiftly. At least in the play.

Death Adder

The appropriately named Death Adder is found in Australia and New Guinea. They actually hunt and kill other snakes, including some on this list, usually via ambush. Death Adders look quite similar to vipers, in that they have triangular shaped heads and short, squat bodies. They typically inject around 40-100mg of venom with an LD of 0.4mg-0.5mg/kg. An untreated Death Adder bite is one of the most dangerous in the world. The venom is a neurotoxin. A bite causes paralysis and can cause death within 6 hours, due to respiratory failure. Symptoms generally peak within 24-48 hours. Antivenin is very successful in treating a bite from a Death Adder, particularly due to the relatively slow progression of symptoms, but before its development, a Death Adder bite had a fatality rate of 50%. With the quickest strike in the world, a Death Adder can go from strike position to striking and back again within 0.13 of a second.

Hydrophis belcheri

Taxonomy and BiologyAdult Length: 0.80 mGeneral Shape
Medium in length, slender bodied snake. Slender and elongated neck and anterior body increasing to a thicker mid and posterior body. Tail compressed laterally. Can grow to a maximum of about 1.22 metres. Head is small to medium, elongate and indistinct from neck. Dorsal scales are smooth and imbricate. Ventral scales are scarcely wider than adjacent dorsal scales and undivided ( some posterior ventrals may be divided ). About 23 to 29 scale rows around the neck.Habitat
Marine.Prey
Feeds mainly on eels and fish.Back to topSpecies MapSmall (Approx 20k) versionBack to top VenomGeneral: Venom Neurotoxins
Postsynaptic neurotoxinsGeneral: Venom Myotoxins
Probably present, but not confirmed.General: Venom Procoagulants
Not presentGeneral: Venom Anticoagulants
Not presentGeneral: Venom Haemorrhagins
Not presentGeneral: Venom Nephrotoxins
Secondary nephrotoxicity onlyGeneral: Venom Cardiotoxins
Secondary cardiotoxicity onlyGeneral: Venom Necrotoxins
Not presentGeneral: Venom Other
Not present or not significantBack to top Clinical EffectsGeneral: Dangerousness
Clinical effects uncertain, but related to medically important species, therefore major envenoming cannot be excluded.General: Rate of Envenoming: UnknownGeneral: Untreated Lethality Rate: UnknownGeneral: Local Effects
None or minimalGeneral: Local Necrosis
Not likely to occurGeneral: General Systemic Effects
Variable non-specific effects which may include headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, dizziness, collapse or convulsionsGeneral: Neurotoxic Paralysis
No clinical reports for this species, but related species cause flaccid paralysisGeneral: Myotoxicity
No case reports for this species, but related species can cause systemic myolysisGeneral: Coagulopathy & Haemorrhages
Unlikely to occurGeneral: Renal Damage
No case reports for this species, but related species can cause renal failure secondary to myolysis.General: Cardiotoxicity
No case reports for this species, but related species can cause hyperkalaemic cardiotoxicity secondary to myolysis.General: Other
Insufficient clinical reports to knowBack to top First AidDescription: First aid for bites by Elapid snakes which do not cause significant injury at the bite site (see Comments for partial listing), but which may have the potential to cause significant general (systemic) effects, such as paralysis, muscle damage, or bleeding.Details
1. After ensuring the patient and onlookers have moved out of range of further strikes by the snake, the bitten person should be reassured and persuaded to lie down and remain still. Many will be terrified, fearing sudden death and, in this mood, they may behave irrationally or even hysterically. The basis for reassurance is the fact that many venomous bites do not result in envenoming, the relatively slow progression to severe envenoming (hours following elapid bites, days following viper bites) and the effectiveness of modern medical treatment. 
2. The bite wound should not be tampered with in any way. Wiping it once with a damp cloth to remove surface venom is unlikely to do much harm (or good) but the wound must not be massaged. For Australian snakes only, do not wash or clean the wound in any way, as this may interfere with later venom detection once in a hospital.
3. All rings or other jewellery on the bitten limb, especially on fingers, should be removed, as they may act as tourniquets if oedema develops. 
4. If the bite is on a limb, a broad bandage (even torn strips of clothing or pantyhose) should be applied over the bitten area at moderate pressure (as for a sprain; not so tight circulation is impaired), then extended to cover as much of the bitten limb as possible, including fingers or toes, going over the top of clothing rather than risking excessive limb movement by removing clothing. The bitten limb should then be immobilised as effectively as possible using an extemporised splint or sling. 
5. If there is any impairment of vital functions, such as problems with respiration, airway, circulation, heart function, these must be supported as a priority. In particular, for bites causing flaccid paralysis, including respiratory paralysis, both airway and respiration may be impaired, requiring urgent and prolonged treatment, which may include the mouth to mask (mouth to mouth) technique of expired air transfer. Seek urgent medical attention.
6. Do not use Tourniquets, cut, suck or scarify the wound or apply chemicals or electric shock.
7. Avoid peroral intake, absolutely no alcohol. No sedatives outside hospital. If there will be considerable delay before reaching medical aid, measured in several hours to days, then give clear fluids by mouth to prevent dehydration.
8. If the offending snake has been killed it should be brought with the patient for identification (only relevant in areas where there are more than one naturally occurring venomous snake species), but be careful to avoid touching the head, as even a dead snake can envenom. No attempt should be made to pursue the snake into the undergrowth as this will risk further bites.
9. The snakebite victim should be transported as quickly and as passively as possible to the nearest place where they can be seen by a medically-trained person (health station, dispensary, clinic or hospital). The bitten limb must not be exercised as muscular contraction will promote systemic absorption of venom. If no motor vehicle or boat is available, the patient can be carried on a stretcher or hurdle, on the pillion or crossbar of a bicycle or on someone's back. 
10. Most traditional, and many of the more recently fashionable, first aid measures are useless and potentially dangerous. These include local cauterization, incision, excision, amputation, suction by mouth, vacuum pump or syringe, combined incision and suction ("venom-ex" apparatus), injection or instillation of compounds such as potassium permanganate, phenol (carbolic soap) and trypsin, application of electric shocks or ice (cryotherapy), use of traditional herbal, folk and other remedies including the ingestion of emetic plant products and parts of the snake, multiple incisions, tattooing and so on.Back to top TreatmentTreatment Summary
Sea snake bites vary from trivial to lethal envenoming, so urgently assess all cases, looking especially for paralysis and/or myolysis. These usually develop in first 6 hrs. They require good hydration/renal flow, respiratory support (for respiratory paralysis), IV antivenom (CSL Sea Snake AV).Key Diagnostic Features
Minimal local pain, development over several hours of flaccid paralysis and/or myolysisGeneral Approach to Management
All cases should be treated as urgent & potentially lethal. Rapid assessment & commencement of treatment including appropriate antivenom (if indicated & available) is mandatory. Admit all cases.Antivenom Therapy
Antivenom is the key treatment for systemic envenoming. Multiple doses may be required.Back to topAntivenoms1. Antivenom Code: MAuCSL03Antivenom Name: Sea snake antivenomManufacturer: CSL LimitedPhone: ++61-3-9389-1911
Toll free: 1800 642 865Address: 45 Poplar Road
Parkville
Victoria 3052Country: Australia

King Cobra

Common Name: King Cobra

Scientific Name: Ophiophagus hannah

Type: Reptiles

Diet: Carnivores

Group Name: Quiver

Average Lifespan in The Wild: 20 years

Size: 13 ft (4 m)

Weight: Up to 20 lbs (9 kg)

Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

About the King Cobra

It seems unfairly menacing that a snake that can literally "stand up" and look a full-grown person in the eye would also be among the most venomous on the planet, but that describes the famous king cobra.

King cobras can reach 18 feet (5.5 meters) in length, making them the longest of all venomous snakes. When confronted, they can raise up to one-third of their bodies straight off the ground and still move forward to attack. They will also flare out their iconic hoods and emit a bone-chilling hiss that sounds almost like a growling dog.

Venom

Their venom is not the most potent among venomous snakes, but the amount of neurotoxin they can deliver in a single bite—up to two-tenths of a fluid ounce (seven milliliters)—is enough to kill 20 people, or even an elephant. Fortunately, king cobras are shy and will avoid humans whenever possible, but they are fiercely aggressive when cornered.

Habitat and Behavior

King cobras live mainly in the rain forests and plains of India, southern China, and Southeast Asia, and their coloring can vary greatly from region to region. They are comfortable in the trees, on land, and in water, feeding mainly on other snakes, venomous and nonvenomous. They will also eat lizards, eggs, and small mammals.

They are the only snakes in the world that build nests for their eggs, which they guard ferociously until the hatchlings emerge.

King cobras may be best known as the species of choice for the snake charmers of South Asia. Although cobras can hear, they are actually deaf to ambient noises, sensing ground vibrations instead. The charmer's flute entices the cobra by its shape and movement, not by the music it emits.

Did You Know?

The king cobra produces enough neurotoxin to kill an elephant with a single bite.

Fer-de-lance

Fer-de-lance, any of several extremely venomous snakes of the viper family (Viperidae) found in diverse habitats from cultivated lands to forests throughout tropical America and tropical Asia. The fer-de-lance, known in Spanish as barba amarilla (“yellow chin”), is a pit viper (subfamily Crotalinae)—i.e., distinguished by a small sensory pit between each eye and nostril. It has a broad triangular head and is usually about 1.2 to 2 metres (4 to 7 feet) long. It is gray or brown, marked by a series of black-edged diamonds often bordered in a lighter colour. Its bite can be fatal to humans.


The common French name fer-de-lance, or “lance head,” originally referred to the Martinique lancehead (Bothrops lanceolatus) found on the island of the same name in the West Indies. Several authoritative sources, however, frequently apply the name to the terciopelo (B. asper) and the common lancehead (B. atrox) of South America. The name fer-de-lance has also been used collectively to describe all snakes of the Central and South American genus Bothrops and the Asian genus Trimeresurus.Among these snakes, all venomous, are the habus (T. flavoviridis and related species, such as Wagler’s pit viper [T. wagleri]); the jararaca (B. jararaca); the wutu, or urutu (B. alternatus); and the jumping viper, or tommygoff (B. nummifera).





Jararaca (Bothrops jararaca).

Dade Thornton—The National Audubon Society Collection/Photo Researchers

Wagler’s pit viper (Trimeresurus wagleri).

Copyright © 1971 Z. Leszczynski/Animals Animals

The Okinawa habu (T. flavoviridis) is a large, aggressive snake found on the Amami and Okinawa island chains in the Ryukyu Islands, often in human dwellings. It is usually about 1.5 metres (5 feet) long and is marked with bold, dark green blotches that may merge to form a wavy longitudinal band. Its venom is not especially potent but sometimes causes disability or death.

The jararaca, or yarará, is found chiefly in Brazil, where it is abundant in grassy regions. Its bite causes many deaths. It usually grows to about 1.2 metres (4 feet) and is olive-brown or grayish brown with darker brown blotches. In Argentina the name yarará also serves as an alternative name for the wutu and the Patagonian lancehead (B. ammodytoides). The wutu, a dangerous South American snake, is about 1.2 metres long. It is brown, boldly marked on its sides with thick dark semicircles outlined in yellow.

The jumping viper is an aggressive brown or gray Central American snake with diamond-shaped crosswise markings on its back. It is usually about 60 cm (2 feet) long. It strikes so energetically that it may lift itself off the ground. Its venom, however, is not especially dangerous to humans.

Black Mamba

e Black Mamba is the most deadly snake in the world. They grow 14 feet in length, and can travel at speeds of up to 12 mph. They have a head shaped like a coffin. The Black Mamba is not actually black. They have a brownish-gray body with a light belly and brownish scales along its back. It gets its name from the color of the lining of its mouth, which is purple-black, and which it displays when threatened.


The Black Mamba lives in South Africa. They like open, low habitats such as savannas, rocky places and open woodlands. They are active during the day. They often sleep in hollow trees, burrows, rock crevices, or empty termite mounds, and will come back to the same place every night.

The Black Mambas feed on small mammals and birds, like voles, rats, squirrels, mice, rats, or bush babies. Once a Mamba was found with a parrot in its stomach, another with a full grown Forest Cobra! It will strike a large animal and then release it. It then stalks their victim until it becomes paralyzed. With smaller animals it will strike and hold on until the animal becomes paralyzed. Its flexible jaws and scales makes it possible to eat the animal whole.

Several weeks after a pair of mamba mate, the female will find a good place to lay 6-17 eggs. The burrow must be damp but not wet, and warm, but not too hot. After she lays her eggs the female leaves. The young snakes are about 16-24 inches long when they hatch three months later. They reach maturity when they are 3-4 feet in length.

The Black Mambas are found in pairs or small groups. They are very nervous, and head away fast when a human approaches. When the mamba feels threatened it will raise its front and head about 3-4 feet off the ground, open its mouth, spread a flat hood, and shake its head. When they attack they will make several quick strikes, and escape as fast as they can. They can strike from 4-6 feet away. Before antivenins were developed, a black mamba bite was 100% fatal.

They are invulnerable, because no animal can actually kill them. Their venom can kill just about anything, so they don't have much to worry about. The mamba is mainly threatened by habitat destruction.

by Allison F.  2000.