Black Naja naja

April 29th 2014

One of my snake rescue team member informed me that he had rescued a snake last night...from Aarey milk colony,Goregaon(east).  He told that the snake he rescued was a cobra... so i said wait let me have a look before you release it...

Spectacled Cobra (Naja naja) are very common through out India... But the cobra that was rescued, was something different and interesting... It was complete black morph of a Spectacled Cobra... with no spectacle mark on its hood... I was so amazed and glad to see such snake...which is rare and this type of black morph in Cobras are found only in Rajasthan(India)... Thinking and searching for more than two months for the reason behind these kind of color difference with in the species of snake... I finally got my answer...

And the answer was Genetic mutation...!!!

In simple terms a snake is born with a series of genes that are responsible for colors and patterns. Each gene contains an allele from each parent of that snake. These allele's are responsible for the pattern and color of the snake. There are normal alleles, which are responsible for normal wild type patterns and coloration, and there are mutant alleles that are responsible for genetic mutations, which cause either pattern or color abnormalities, and sometimes even both pattern and color abnormalities at the same time. We call snakes with these genetic mutations (morphs).


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Deadly Encounter with Russell's Viper (Daboia russelii)

Deadly Encounter with Russell's Viper (Daboia russelii)

 December 26th 2013

Russell's viper is one of the Big Four medically important snake of India,and causes as many or more snakebites than cobras... and has Haemotoxic venom (Affecting the circulatory system) causing blood clots and destroying the tissues at the site of bite...!!!

Russell's viper is common through out India... Found in open grassy areas,rocky hillocks and in and around mangroves(Mumbai coast)

One fine morning of Dec 26th... I got a snake call from 2nd Cross lane Lokhandwala,Andheri-west...! I reached there.. the caller informed me that their is a snake trapped badly in a nylon net... since morning 4-5 a.m and making a kind of hissing noise like a pressure cooker... finally i saw it and it was a Russell's viper around 4.5fts trying its best to come out from the trapped net... i had handled many of these vipers before... but never saw this kind of situation before...!!

Finally I made my mind that the snake is in trouble and have to cut the net of... but for that have to head grab the deadly viper which was already hesitate... I was scared but had to do... it was now or never for me... with the help of my snake handling hook... i pressed the head of trapped snake and hold it tightly just allowing it to breath... but was very careful as viper's have fangs which can move backwards and upwards against the roof of the mouth and can open to 180 degrees which could easily penetrate my finger while i am holding the snake(head)... local people provided some small sharp blades which i used to cut the net but the net was very tough to cut... it took around 2 hours to cut the net from its mid body region towards its head... and while cutting i got several cuts on my finger which was bleeding... than one of the local person provided me scissors... which was helping a lot...

The final part was to cut the net near its head... at this point of time the snake just wanted to bite me and was struggling to get released from net... and my hand...!!!

That snake was free but could not let it go as it was unsafe to release the snake at the same spot due to human population which would have had harmed humans as well as the snake... so i bagged it and released it at the same time near mangroves patch... and also offered some water as viper's turn hot quickly...!!



Hope so the snake is still alive and enjoying the wild after this deadly encounter with humans....!!!!









Thank you for reading my post...!!!

Three Indian Rat Snakes(Ptyas mucosa) a day keeps the rats, frogs & lizards away...!!!

Three Indian Rat Snakes(Ptyas mucosa) a day keeps the rats, frogs & lizards away...!!!

As the Rat Snakes are non-venomous and most commonly found snake in India with a wide range of habitats... they mostly feeds on frogs,rats,toads,lizards,bats,bird(eggs) etc... and they are diurnal hunter which means active by day and night... and very good climber with amazing speed... can grow up to 11 fts... so this is the strong reason that they prefer to enter into human population in search of easy available food and shelter and due to this humans does have unknown encounters by this snakes almost in every season

A fine morning of 7th July 2014... Rescued 3 Indian Rat Snakes at various locations...!

I- The first call was from lokhandwala (Andheri-west) the snake was near parking plot of the residential building...!

 II- The second call was from Panchtantra heights, Versova,Yari road(Andheri-west) the snake was inside the flat on 14th floor of the same building... but could not find it as it was very familiar by the place around to hide... so i left... than with in half an hour the snake was again spotted at the same place by one of the watchman... he just kept an eye on the snake closing all the opening of the flat including doors and windows... and thus the snake was rescued successfully...

III- The third call was from again at lokhandwala side but at different location. near kaveri society,millat nagar(Andheri-west) this was an easy rescue but had to take care as the snake was about to escape... but did handle the situation and rescued the snake...

Very happy to save these non- venomous snakes as they keep an active control on rats and many small creatures with in the residential societies and also plays an vital role in food chain...!!! All of these snakes were released back to wild on the same day...

Thank you all for reading my post...!!!

Snake Rescues in Mumbai...!!!

As a (zoology) Student... i always loved studying identification of snakes and handling them... and so started rescuing snakes from near by area... snakes are harmless.... but if threatened can harm you for sure...

Last night rescued a Non-venomous snake called Checkered Keelback (Xenochrophis piscator) from a society namely ONGC colony A-type,poonam nagar,jogeshwari-vikhroli link road, andheri-east...
the size of the snake was around 3.5 fts and was quite healthy... these snakes are very common through out India especially in fresh water bodies...feeds on frogs,rodents and birds occasionally...
the caller had kept an eye on snake.. as i reached.. saw the snake hiding in dabris... with the help of hook just uncoiled the snake, caught it tail at first and bagged it.., the snake was released safely with in 25 mins of rescue...

 Thank you all for reading my post.....!!!!!!!

Indian Rock Pyhton (Python molurus molurus)

One of the largest non-venomous snake belonging to mumbai. usually rare but quite common in parts of its range. from Goregaon(aarey colony) Borivali(sanjay gandhi national park) to mira road,bhayander and so on.
as a active rescuer and snake handler it was my dream to handle such a deadly snake and finally did get a chance to handle one of it. as pythons have two rows of teeth on each upper jaw and one row on each lower jaw.all of the teeth are short,sharp and hook-like. so was very careful while handling as from others experience,it has been said that the python bite is very painful and damage causing,which can tare off the muscle of the bitten part.so keeping this thing in mind i made my first move to stop the moving python by holding its tail and trying to give it support by holding its mid-body and of course avoiding bites. after trying for several times.i finally was confident to handle it with care. the main part is that i enjoyed handling it and clicking some good photographs which was followed by releasing it back to wild in its suitable habitat.

Thank you all for reading this post...