A Snakeful Night

Luck was with me on 29 September 2006.

Five snakes in a night!

There was a Common Malayan Racer (Coelognathus flavolineatus) that was faster than F1 racer, escaped before a photograph can be taken.


A Equatorial Spitting Cobra (Naja sumatrana) with cloudy eyes, suggesting that the snake is about to shed its skin.


A Keel-bellied Whip Snake (Dryophiops rubescens) roadkill.


A juvenile King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) roadkill.


And finally ... the skeletal remains of a large Reticulated Python (Python reticulatus) in a monsoon drain.

Ok, I cheated a bit. But dead snakes are still snakes, and are important for locality recording purposes.

Sightings are from a northern offshore island of Singapore.

Previous sightings:

http://singaporesnakes.blogspot.com/2006/08/another-snake-roadkill.html
http://singaporesnakes.blogspot.com/2006/08/snake-roadkills-in-singapore_01.html

* All photographs from Mr Norman Lim and Mr Chim Chee Kong

Snake Roadkills in Singapore

Norman Lim sighted FOUR roadkills of different snake species on a single day (27 June 2006) on an offshore island of Singapore: Coelognathus flavolineatus (Common Malayan Racer), Dendrelaphis pictus (Painted Bronzeback), Naja sumatrana (Equatorial Spitting Cobra), and a Ophiophagus hannah (King Cobra) juvenile.

Snakes need to bask but these poor souls were probably enjoying a nice sun tan, when they were driven to their graves. Nobody knows how many snakes are killed this way in Singapore. Please drive safely, for the snakes.

Bad for snakes but good for scientists. Live snakes are hard to collect, thus dead specimens are extremely precious. Scientists can still collect loads of useful data from well-preserved specimens, without killing one. You can do your part for local conservation by reporting roadkills to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research soon after your sighting.