Hello,

I love snakes and often go out looking for them. I want this thread to be a place that offers those interested some information about the snake species in Thailand. There are over 250 different species and subspecies in Thailand, and a few of them are not exactly harmless.

Furthermore, you are welcome to post photos here of snakes you have seen and would like to have identified. I cannot identify every single one of the 250+ subspecies, but I think I am still quite knowledgeable.

Here are two pictures I took in Bangkok last autumn. In one of them, you can see a Reticulated Python, and in the other, a Large-eyed Pit Viper.

You wouldn't want to get bitten by either of them... :)

I would like to gradually introduce a few species here, in the hope that one or two people might lose their fear of snakes or learn to love them as I do.

It is important to me to mention that even though I catch the animals from time to time, I never hurt them. Catching them causes some stress for the animals, but they are exposed to that in the wild almost daily anyway. I mainly do this to learn how they behave and to study them up close—and, of course, for a photo.

This should be n interesting topic thanks.

I'm a big fan of snakes of all kinds, thanks for starting the thread.

Not from Thailand but here is one I ran into a while back that I nearly stepped on.

Put your identification skills to the test!

Edited July 16Jul 16 by Mrbiggles

32 minutes ago, Mrbiggles said:

Not from Thailand but here is one I ran into a while back that I nearly stepped on.

Put your identification skills to the test!

It's called a log! 😆

Here to help!

4 hours ago, BaklavaBernd said:

I love snakes and often go out looking for them.

Last year I came across a snake in Thailand. It was on Koh Chang. I was walking through a trail to get to a waterfall. When I saw it I froze (I’m scared of snakes) and then I ran off in a panic. It was only a few feet from me. Brown and maybe 50cm long. I looked it up afterwards and think what I saw was called a Chinese Rat Snake. A Thai guy at the hotel said there are lots of them. He reckoned there were King Cobras in that woodland. My own sighting made me paranoid about the Cobra. I was thinking I might go back only if I can find a good stick to carry.

Do you have to go out at night to have a good chance of seeing snakes in Thailand? Where do Reticulated Pythons like to hang out in Bangkok? Do you think they could be responsible for missing pets?

Thanks.

13 minutes ago, George1234 said:

(I’m scared of snakes)

Me times 100. I would go with "petrified" instead of "scared." Like to the extent when that guy with the python would show up on Soi 6, I would make a VERY wide berth.

It's one (of many) reasons why I could never retire to rural Thailand.

Hell, just reading this thread got me a little antsy! 555

4 minutes ago, Luv2Phuket said:

Me times 100. I would go with "petrified" instead of "scared." Like to the extent when that guy with the python would show up on Soi 6, I would make a VERY wide berth.

It's one (of many) reasons why I could never retire to rural Thailand.

Hell, just reading this thread got me a little antsy! 555

I freeze. Then panic. Even in a cage. All my life I have been scared of snakes even though I would never have reason to come into contact with them. Where I live now nobody has seen a snake for a long time. But they are present.

I went to Samui with my girlfriend and she found this snake place on Google while we were driving to a temple. She wanted to go and I know it was only because she finds my fear of snakes funny. She thinks it’s funny how a big person can be scared of something so small.

Anyway we arrive at this shack of a building. An old Thai guy on his own greets us. I pay him. He seems a bit odd. My girlfriend determines he is drunk on whisky. Without any warning he gives me a python to hold. I’m frozen with fear. This thing is just pure muscle. Until you hold one you don’t the realise power. She is snapping away with pictures laughing thinking it is great. He puts it back in a cage on the floor and forgets to lock the door. It is escaping I’m trying to get my girlfriend to tell him. He tells me to relax and my girlfriend tells him about my fear of snakes. He just laughs. Perhaps I should go on the whisky.

So he takes us around this shack full of snakes. I’m on edge. He is telling me stories of how people he knows have been bitten by King Cobras. One guy apparently bit in the tongue and died in about twenty minutes. He tells me about Spectacled Cobras and keeps repeating ‘venom more power’ as if I don’t understand that he is referring to the potency. While he is telling the stories he is using his arm and hand to make a snake. He then suddenly hits out as my chest to demonstrate how it lunges at you. He nearly gives me a heart attack. My girlfriend is laughing and talking to him in Thai. I’m sure she is egging him on. When his back is turned I’m mouthing to her that we should go. She is laughing telling me I will upset him (she doesn’t think that she just wants the circus to continue).

Then he moves us along and starts saying ‘gecko’ which I’m thinking is at least a reprieve from snakes. He take use to this breeze block square about four feet high and I’m wondering how he is keeping geckos in there. So I look in and of course it isn’t a gecko. It is a huge crocodile. Another heart attack. He gets a stick and drops it inside. He is leaning in to retrieve it, right next to this killing machine and I’m saying to myself - please, just leave it.

Now it is getting to me with this guy. I tell my girlfriend we need to go. He leads us out of this maze of a shack, he is walking quite fast and I’m having to duck under the low roof. He turns around the corner and when I come round he is waiting and puts a cobra right in my face. I shout out ‘Fuck!!!’ and my heart stops. Then I realise it is a cobra carved out of wood and he is laughing. My girlfriend thinks this is the perfect end to the show. I’m not laughing.

He follows us out to the car and the while I’m starting up the car he is talking across me through the window to my girlfriend. He is telling her that he can take us out on his boat for whatever sum of money it is. Probably to go swimming with Great Whites. She is actually exploring the possibility and is asking him about his boat. I give her a look and she tells him we will come back another day. She tells me that he can take us to places that are restricted because he is local - as if this is a plus point. Forget that he will be an entirely reckless captain drunk on whisky. I tell her he should be closed down and we wont be going sailing with him. I can still make her laugh with my pitch perfect ‘venom more power!!!’

9 minutes ago, George1234 said:

I freeze. Then panic. Even in a cage. All my life I have been scared of snakes even though I would never have reason to come into contact with them. Where I live now nobody has seen a snake for a long time. But they are present.

I went to Samui with my girlfriend and she found this snake place on Google while we were driving to a temple. She wanted to go and I know it was only because she finds my fear of snakes funny. She thinks it’s funny how a big person can be scared of something so small.

Anyway we arrive at this shack of a building. An old Thai guy on his own greets us. I pay him. He seems a bit odd. My girlfriend determines he is drunk on whisky. Without any warning he gives me a python to hold. I’m frozen with fear. This thing is just pure muscle. Until you hold one you don’t the realise power. She is snapping away with pictures laughing thinking it is great. He puts it back in a cage on the floor and forgets to lock the door. It is escaping I’m trying to get my girlfriend to tell him. He tells me to relax and my girlfriend tells him about my fear of snakes. He just laughs. Perhaps I should go on the whisky.

So he takes us around this shack full of snakes. I’m on edge. He is telling me stories of how people he knows have been bitten by King Cobras. One guy apparently bit in the tongue and died in about twenty minutes. He tells me about Spectacled Cobras and keeps repeating ‘venom more power’ as if I don’t understand that he is referring to the potency. While he is telling the stories he is using his arm and hand to make a snake. He then suddenly hits out as my chest to demonstrate how it lunges at you. He nearly gives me a heart attack. My girlfriend is laughing and talking to him in Thai. I’m sure she is egging him on. When his back is turned I’m mouthing to her that we should go. She is laughing telling me I will upset him (she doesn’t think that she just wants the circus to continue).

Then he moves us along and starts saying ‘gecko’ which I’m thinking is at least a reprieve from snakes. He take use to this breeze block square about four feet high and I’m wondering how he is keeping geckos in there. So I look in and of course it isn’t a gecko. It is a huge crocodile. Another heart attack. He gets a stick and drops it inside. He is leaning in to retrieve it, right next to this killing machine and I’m saying to myself - please, just leave it.

Now it is getting to me with this guy. I tell my girlfriend we need to go. He leads us out of this maze of a shack, he is walking quite fast and I’m having to duck under the low roof. He turns around the corner and when I come round he is waiting and puts a cobra right in my face. I shout out ‘Fuck!!!’ and my heart stops. Then I realise it is a cobra carved out of wood and he is laughing. My girlfriend thinks this is the perfect end to the show. I’m not laughing.

He follows us out to the car and the while I’m starting up the car he is talking across me through the window to my girlfriend. He is telling her that he can take us out on his boat for whatever sum of money it is. Probably to go swimming with Great Whites. She is actually exploring the possibility and is asking him about his boat. I give her a look and she tells him we will come back another day. She tells me that he can take us to places that are restricted because he is local - as if this is a plus point. Forget that he will be an entirely reckless captain drunk on whisky. I tell her he should be closed down and we wont be going sailing with him. I can still make her laugh with my pitch perfect ‘venom more power!!!’

Two words: FUCK. THAT!

2 hours ago, Mrbiggles said:

Put your identification skills to the test!

Damn, first try and i have to say, i dont know exaktly. The Problem with the Foto is that it is very bad quality. That could be a few species to be honest. if you have a photo with better quality i would like to give me another try. :)

1 hour ago, George1234 said:

Do you have to go out at night to have a good chance of seeing snakes in Thailand?

We go out in the evening mostly. But i also find a lot in the Morning when i do my morning walk at Buddha hill in Pattaya. Exspecially in the month when its still raining.

1 hour ago, George1234 said:

Where do Reticulated Pythons like to hang out in Bangkok?

We find them mostly in undeveloped land in the middle of the city, not in Parks or something. Just in the middle where the people live.

1 hour ago, George1234 said:

Do you think they could be responsible for missing pets?

Maybe not pets, but street dogs or stray cat. in this area where we found the python from the picture lives an even bigger one like 5 Meter. An there are 0 Dogs but arround there are dogs everywhere. So maybe they got eaten or they just left this place. I am not sure about this.

Peaked early, no other video came close in all that time

Edited July 16Jul 16 by Mrbiggles

How everything started.

To be honest, I was never interested in snakes until I saw them while scuba diving in the Philippines in 2019.

All of them were yellow-lipped sea kraits.

https://www.thainationalparks.com/species/laticauda-colubrina

At first, I was scared because most of the dive guides are not very well educated. They tell stories like they will bite you in the skin between your fingers because they can’t open their mouth wide enough. They say they are very dangerous and deadly. Well, that’s partially true. They are definitely highly venomous and potentially deadly. But they also never bite. The idea that they can’t open their mouth wide enough to bite through human skin is a myth. They can easily. But they are one of the most friendly snakes you will ever meet. Even if handled, they don’t bite. I highly recommend not to handle them, but I know a lot of snake guys who do.

You will find them while diving or snorkeling. But at night, they come out of the water and stay between rocks at the beach or something like that.

I think it was the mix of beauty and danger that started my fascination. They are so beautiful underwater and could kill me if they wanted to, but they just don’t give a f*** about me. Also, the baby sea krait in the video: We did the safety stop at 5 meters and the snake came to us out of curiosity. You can see it come down, look at us, and go up again. It was maybe 30 cm away from my Camera.

https://youtu.be/8_vWGCLDSDo

(If the quality is bad, please watch it directly on YouTube.)

For many, this would maybe be a moment of pure horror? :) For me, it was like I saw a kitten. So cute, this little thing. And from then on, I started to educate myself about snakes and fell in love.

8 hours ago, BaklavaBernd said:

How everything started.

To be honest, I was never interested in snakes until I saw them while scuba diving in the Philippines in 2019.

All of them were yellow-lipped sea kraits.

https://www.thainationalparks.com/species/laticauda-colubrina

At first, I was scared because most of the dive guides are not very well educated. They tell stories like they will bite you in the skin between your fingers because they can’t open their mouth wide enough. They say they are very dangerous and deadly. Well, that’s partially true. They are definitely highly venomous and potentially deadly. But they also never bite. The idea that they can’t open their mouth wide enough to bite through human skin is a myth. They can easily. But they are one of the most friendly snakes you will ever meet. Even if handled, they don’t bite. I highly recommend not to handle them, but I know a lot of snake guys who do.

You will find them while diving or snorkeling. But at night, they come out of the water and stay between rocks at the beach or something like that.

I think it was the mix of beauty and danger that started my fascination. They are so beautiful underwater and could kill me if they wanted to, but they just don’t give a f*** about me. Also, the baby sea krait in the video: We did the safety stop at 5 meters and the snake came to us out of curiosity. You can see it come down, look at us, and go up again. It was maybe 30 cm away from my Camera.

https://youtu.be/8_vWGCLDSDo

(If the quality is bad, please watch it directly on YouTube.)

For many, this would maybe be a moment of pure horror? :) For me, it was like I saw a kitten. So cute, this little thing. And from then on, I started to educate myself about snakes and fell in love.

That is the exact type of snake I saw about 30 years ago on a canoeing excursion by a local down a river in a place called Espirito Santo in Vanuatu.

It slithered past us in the water and I asked this guy if they were deadly and he said no.

I then asked if a bit would kill you and he said 50/50

Way before that line was used in war dogs.

We ended up at his property that of all things had a WW2 fighter plane sitting in what I assume was his front yard with all the kids playing on it.

Exactly where it must have crashed during that time.

Edited July 17Jul 17 by Mrbiggles

This one I found at Buddha Hill in Pattaya. It's a baby, and I helped him over the wall. There are a lot of dogs, and they would have probably killed it.

Golden Tree Snake (mildly venomous but harmless to humans)

Golden Tree Snake Profile

This is one of the most common snakes in Thailand. They live almost everywhere. They are harmless to humans and rear-fanged. Rear-fanged means they have to chew on you to insert their venom, unlike cobras for example, which have large fangs and can inject large amounts of venom lightning-fast with every bite.

The favourite food of the golden tree snake is probably the Tokay gecko. If you're "lucky", you can see them fight. Most of the time, the snake will win.

I have a friend who lives in BKK. We share the love for snakes. He also keeps a few snakes at home, we wanted to take a look at those first. (before go out) He has the blue Viper, or rather a couple of them. May favourite Snake in the world.

The most beautiful one is this one here.

In real life it's noticeably bluer. And gorgeous silver eyes. And a real little diva. Here's another blue one, with red eyes. Way more laid-back.

It's actually pretty interesting to see how different the personalities of snakes can be. You wouldn't really expect that from such a "simple" species, but there are immense differences. Some you can pick up and hold, they never bite, and others of the very same genus bite at every opportunity.

Of course there are also immense differences between the species themselves when it comes to behavior. The blue Viper (Trimeresurus insularis) can not be fo8und in thailand btw. But you can find green vipers in BKK ich are almost blue or at least blueish.

Here's a Wagler's Pit Viper, a male. Can be found in Thailand.

Beautiful golden eyes and absolutely peaceful. My friend is holding it in his hand, even though it's fairly venomous too. What I love so much about snakes is their variety. There are so many different shapes and colors. I mean, blue — what animal is blue and still calls itself an ambush predator? You can't get more conspicuous than that.

Or the Wagler's Pit Viper — take a look at what the female looks like. It's the same species.

He didn't have that one there, I just wanted to show you the difference. All the other pictures were taken by me. Apart from the eyes, nothing about them is identical.

Edited August 1Aug 1 by BaklavaBernd

He's also got a bullfrog. Man, did that thing stink. Those critters really eat anything that fits in their mouth. For some of us this may sound familiar.

Red-Necked Keelback. Common in Thailand.

The only snake in Thailand that is both venomous and poisonous. Well, who would've known the difference?

That means it can inject venom through its bite and is additionally poisonous if you touch it. The red coloring behind the head is the poison. It gains that from the prey it eats — from toads, I think.

This snake is generally described as harmless in Thailand. But it's not. It possesses a highly potent venom, but it's rearfanged, meaning it doesn't have big venom fangs like a cobra or a viper.

Instead it has to work the venom in while biting. If you let this snake chew on you for too long, you're in serious danger. Sure, nobody just does that on purpose, but it's important to me to point out that this little beauty is considerably more dangerous than its reputation suggests.

Hagen's Pit Viper. Venomous. Found in Thailand.

Large-Eyed Pit Viper. Widespread in Bangkok. Look at that stare. It doesn't exactly look friendly. As if it were saying: "Dude! You've got to be kidding me. Put me down right now, I'm afraid of heights! I swear I'll bite you, and if I can't reach you, then I'll shit all over everything here."

Then I wanted to touch something too, but I can't remember anymore what it was. Not a native snake. He only had 2 snakes that can't land me in the hospital, and one of them is nasty. So this was the only one I got to hold.

It was a real sweetheart. And since I knew we probably wouldn't find anything else I could touch today, I made the most of the opportunity.

Edited August 3Aug 3 by BaklavaBernd

So now we come to the most intense experience of the evening, and probably one of the most intense experiences I've ever had. Guys, this was really heavy.

A big Spitting Cobra about 1 meter in front of me. Like I said, the feelings are hard to describe. But it's insane what a presence an animal like that has. I think it simply comes down to how dangerous it is. And then that hissing, like a cat. Insane. My pulse was at 180, I think. I kept scooting further and further to the edge of the sofa. All in all, a moment I'll never forget.

It really was a very beautiful animal. Completely black with black eyes.

Spitting Cobra, Black Edition.

My friends girlfriend then visually fixated the snake on a pillow in the video. That means the snake sees only that pillow and nothing else anymore. If you listen closely, you can also hear the hissing next to the TV. Since the pillow doesn't have eyes, the cobra didn't spit. It only does that when it recognizes eyes, and then it aims for the eyes too. Like all cobras, this one also doesn't notice what's next to it or behind it once it's locked onto an object.

My friend also has baby spitters. But we didn't take those out. Those things spray everywhere like there's no tomorrow. You don't even have to look at them.

They go off like the dick of an 18-year-old virgin in a gentlemen's club. Except the little cobra shits have a much higher stamina.

https://youtube.com/shorts/aRsBLdAF34o?feature=share

After that we went outside. The condo where he lives looks absolutely wild. Cracks everywhere since the earthquake. It's all being plastered back up right now. :) I wouldn't really feel comfortable inside there, even though I saw a lot of pretty girls going in and out.

First, we grabed some 7/11 beer and come down a bit from the cobra experience. Then we walked to a spot nearby. These spots are nothing special at all. Just an undeveloped plot of land, the kind you find on every corner. In 2 hours we found 20 snakes and probably overlooked 100. 19 of them were small green vipers of the Large-Eyed Pit Viper genus.
If you want to know what number 20 was then stay tuned. :)

The dogs were extremely annoying and kept getting more and more
numerous. I was already feeling a bit uneasy about that.
We caught a Tokay.

And let it bite us. And learned how to get your hand back out. Because it's generally said that the little bastards don't let go so easily. That's actually true,
but the trick is to pull your hand away quickly the moment it bites down a
little less hard. If you do it too slowly, the bite immediately gets stronger
again. It does hurt, but it doesn't bleed.

I actually wanted a cool scar so I could show off to the ladies, but with a
Tokay that's not gonna happen — it didn't even bleed.
My friend has a cool scar, all the way around his whole leg, from a 4.5-meter-long python from the area we're about to head to. But whether I'd really want to go to the doctor and get stitched up just for a scar… 🙂
I'm not entirely sure about that.
But on my friends leg it looks pretty badass, if you can put it that way, because you can still see the python's mouth and get a sense of its size. Even though he surely would have gladly done without the bite.
That one was a normal Tokay for sure. We took some more cool pics with it.
Learned a ton again that day, for sure.

Besides the normal Tokay, we then also found Tokay Hulk. I've never seen
such a giant.

11111

Here my friend showed us the feet — we were supposed to feel them. They were like sandpaper, you'd really stick to them. I mean sure, they've got to stay on the wall somehow, but to actually feel it yourself was pretty fascinating.
The fact that they keep their mouth open is typical for the species, a
defensive strategy. Not because anything hurts them.

Edited August 4Aug 4 by BaklavaBernd

Crazy size difference, right?

Quick interjection again. Yes, this is a little bit of stress for the animals, but no more than that. They're confronted with predators every day, especially from dogs or cats, snakes, and so on. We didn't hurt any animal — we always handled them with care only. Both my friend and I love these animals. Does it have to be that we touch them? No, not really. But if you want to learn something about them, study their behavior, or observe them up close, then it gets difficult without catching them, because apart from the vipers, all of them would be gone in seconds. On top of that, I dream of one day becoming the snake catcher of Pattaya, and of course that doesn't happen without practice.

Here I'm doing my apprentice's exam. Last year still as a trainee with the snake hook. This year only with a stick, which is quite a bit harder. I even had to put my beer down for a moment there.

Random moth. There are also incredibly many and beautiful species of moths and butterflies in Thailand. This one wasn't really beautiful, but it was relatively big.

These birds were sleeping all over the bushes. Some of them surely end up as a snake's victim too. What species this is, I have no idea. We didn't disturb them, because my friend said that if they fall down, they can't take off again at night. No idea why.

Edited August 5Aug 5 by BaklavaBernd

Then we moved on to the last spot. Once again an undeveloped plot of land, maybe half the size of a football pitch. The special thing here: it was half underwater and was a kind of swamp. There also weren't any annoying dogs here. Do you want to know why? Think back to how big the python was that my friend found here recently. Unfortunately, only a small part of the whole area is accessible, so it's a big stroke of luck if you find a python there. But by now we also know that it's not just the big python living there, but also a couple of its smaller siblings. Maybe even a big brother, too. 4.5 m is big, sure, but not yet huge for this species.

This is what it looked like in there. There were little green vipers everywhere. Mostly on the ground, but they can happily hang at head height too.

After that we went over to the neighboring plot. That one was completely empty. No trees, no swamp, just flat grass.

We walked all the way through, and when we were almost back at the road, I saw something big right next to my other friend m., about half a meter from his leg and moving away from us. K. (my snake buddy) had already walked past it without it moving, but when it saw me, it surely thought to itself: hmm yeaaaah, this could get tight, that one looks like he eats a lot, I'd better make myself scarce. I recognized the pattern immediately and just yelled Python, Python. As the official discoverer, though, M.went down in the record books.

K. came leaping straight back and grabbed the python by the tail. That was a pretty serious piece of animal. Close to 3 meters. The first order of business was to calm the python down a bit and make clear to it that we didn't want to do it any harm. And of course also to wear it out a little. Because pythons are like fat people. They have a lot of strength, but only
for a very short time. We found it exactly here, in this flat grass.

https://youtube.com/shorts/GYSiEDnH4tE?feature=share

And this is how you then catch it, all casual, with one hand.

https://youtube.com/shorts/BoW38nzHoKA?feature=share

But that only works if someone else is distracting the python. My first python! And right away such a beast. Sick, sick, sick. I was really happy — the python not so much. 🙂
Would I trust myself to catch one now too? Absolutely. :) What could really
go wrong there.
K. kept encouraging me. Go on, hold it. At first I kept not wanting to, but
then I did anyway. When do you ever get an opportunity like this.

During the handover I almost caught my bite after all, but it turned out okay again. All in all we had it in "captivity" for just a few minutes. It had us, too.

Not only does it have a super beautiful pattern, but also this kind of rainbow skin. It looks like you're staring into a puddle of gasoline. Really nice. The animal was also perfectly healthy. It didn't have a single tick, which we would have removed on an occasion like this. That way the animal at least gets some benefit from being caught too. K. and me. Brothers from different mothers ...

This was really an epic experience for me, one which, just like the cobra, I'll surely never forget. Getting to feel that strength for once, too. I'd had a python around my neck before at the venom-extraction facility in BKK, but that one was totally relaxed. This one, of course, didn't find it so great, and you really did feel the strength.

After that we happily went to the nearest 7/11 and knocked back another 5 beers. What an evening.

Edited August 5Aug 5 by BaklavaBernd