The white-lipped pit viper, Trimeresurus albolabris, is one of the most common species of pit vipers found in southeastern parts of Asia, which includes some northern states of India. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, India is home to 17 species of pit viper; among these 17, the white-lipped pit viper is most commonly found in northern and northeastern parts of India.

The white-lipped pit viper is green in color like other green tree vipers, and the ventral body is pale yellow or whitish yellow in color. A light ventrolateral stripe is present in all males, but absent in females. The color of the tail is reddish-brown or reddish-maroon. The size of these snakes varies from 2-2.7 feet, and these snakes are viviparous by nature.

It’s very difficult for a snake lover in the southwestern part of India to encounter such a beautiful snake, but I find myself very lucky because I’m native to Uttarakhand, one of the northern states of India. I found this snake during the summer of 2013 in Uttarakhand.

The thing that surprised me the most was that I always thought pit vipers are found only on trees and sometimes on land, but this fellow was enjoying himself in a stream.

When I picked him up I noticed that its belly was fully loaded with small fishes. This is one of the main reasons I love snakes as I’ve been studing them for a long time, but they never stop surprising me.
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Our Herp Video of the Week shares a herper named Zach and his Valentine’s Day find of a bundle of ringneck snakes in the Bay Area.

Submit your own reptile & amphibian videos at http://www.kingsnake.com/video/ and you could see them featured here or check out all the videos submitted by other users! …read more
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This Phyllomedusa hypocondrialis is hanging on til the weekend in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Herpetologia!

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By Herp News

Trophy hunters may need to find another flight home, as South African Airlines (SAA) has announced a new ban on any wildlife trophies from their flights. The debate over trophy hunting in Africa is rising as many of the continent’s most beloved mammals—including lions, elephants, rhinos, and giraffes—face precipitous declines.

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Awareness! There was such a thing as a horned frog, and a giant one at that.

My first awareness of this genus of frogs occurred at about 7 years old as I was, with parents, riding the rails – the rails of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford – home from New York. We had been to the Bronx Zoo and in my hand was a zoo guide, a thick paperback, devoted to identifying and discussing some of the creatures we had seen that day.

I scanned the mammal and bird sections and remember turning the pages to the reptiles and stopping at a picture of a horned frog in the amphibian section. I was dismayed for I had not seen this creature at the zoo, yet here it was, bigger than life, pictured in the guide.

I’m almost positive it was a giant horned frog, a Ceratophrys aurita, a horned frog about which to this day I know precious little.

The Brazilian horned frog is supposedly the largest of the genus, larger even that the biggest of the female ornate horned frogs. However, the very few breeders of “C. aurita” today have smaller frogs and believe that the actual size of C. aurita has been exaggerated or if not, that the species varies in adult size populationally and/or individually.

I know that having not seen one yet, I am anxiously awaiting the availability of a dinner-plate sized, long-horned, Brazilian horned frog in the pet trade.
Continue reading “Brazilian Horned Frog: Reminiscences and hopes” …read more
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Recently discovered Brazilian frogs create underwater chambers to mate.

From the Daily Mail:

And when it comes to mating, this family of frogs has a unique trait not seen in other frogs.

They typically like to live near fast streams and, if a pair decides to mate, they will spend five minutes searching for a private spot.

‘The male quickly carves out a chamber by excavating the sand around small rocks at the bottom of the stream,’ said Agata Blaszczak-Boxe from New Scientist.

‘Then, like Christian Grey from Fifty Shades he invites his mate into his sex dungeon, which is only just big enough to fit the two amorous amphibians.’

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Simply beautiful is the only way to describe this Mitchell’s reed frog (Hyperolius mitchelli) taking center stage in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user arkherps!

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By Herp News

Indonesian researchers believe they have identified six new animal species in the newly declared Mount Tambora National Park on the island of Sumbawa. Their haul includes two bent-toed geckoes, two moths and and two amblypygids, a type of arachnid that resembles a scorpion crossed with a spider.

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Spend Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday laid out on my back with excruciating back pain and muscle spasms. I was so seriously incapacitated that I was unable to pick up socks from the floor because if I was foolish enough to lean over involuntary screams could make my neighbor think I was being murdered by some intruder. I’ve taken to sleeping in our guest room because I groan and gasp so loudly every time I move it wakes my poor husband who has to get up early in the morning.

You know that Frankie has to be responsible for my latest injuries, right? He is now so remarkable large and heavy that simple tortoise maintenance like washing his shell or throwing out hay for him is bound to be a dangerous task, right? Well, this time Frankie is not the direct or indirect cause of my back injury.

I hurt my back raking leaves off the drive way and washing my car. Welcome, Leann, to your mid-fifties.

Remember back when you could pick up Frankie? Remember when you used to pick 50 pound bales of hay off the ground and throw them in the back of a pick-up truck? Remember when you could crawl over a chain link fence or climb your way over an eight foot picket fence? Yeah, I remember those days. I’m missing those days.

These days, especially the last few days, strength and mobility are not part of my life.

Yesterday I was laid out on the living room recliner, heating pad under my lower back, a pain killer finely kicking in, and I wasn’t going anywhere for nothing because it could cause my back to spasm again. I’m sitting there trying not to move, breathing shallow when suddenly I notice out of the corner of my eye the lawn chair walking by the back door.

The chair walked the entire length of door and came to an abrupt stop as it collided with Frankie’s outdoor shed. I couldn’t have turned my head to see the fate of chair or shed even if I thought I should. To my relief the chair did a very slow bumpy like turn and headed the other way. Just as the chair exited my view it suddenly reappeared as it tipped over and fell on its side.

The chair laid on it’s side for a while with no more animation. That was good. Then the blue folding ladder that was set up against the fence about ten feet from the back door started to move to a new location. The ladder did fairly well moving for about fifteen second when it started to wobble. The front section lifted and the heavier top section stole away the forward momentum causing the whole ladder to topple over on the grass.

Still, I couldn’t do much but watch from my peripheral view the moving objects in the yard and hope no real harm was coming …read more
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By Herp News

In the first four months of 2015, poachers killed 393 rhinos in South Africa, the epicenter of the rhino poaching crisis. This is an 18 percent rise from last year, which saw 1,215 rhinos butchered in total. Like previous years, the biggest hotspot was Kruger National Park where 290 rhinos have died so far.

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Balls of tar have washed ashore on a Malaysian beach known for its nesting green turtles.

From the Star Online:

Lang Tengah Turtle Watch co-founder Raphe van Zevenbergen said he noticed clumps of tar balls washing up ashore along the 15m-stretch beach and immediately lodged a report with the marine park authorities.

“So far, we have collected some 13 bags of tar balls. We are concerned that the tar might seep into the sand. We have also asked for help from the nearby resorts.

“They have been very obliging in cleaning their own sections of the beach as we all await assistance from the authorities,” he said.

Lang Tengah Island, which is just under three kilometres in length, is popularly known as Turtle Bay due to its known turtle nesting population, predominantly the green turtles.

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There is nothing common about these common frogs (Rana temporaria) taking the spotlight in our Herp Photo of the Day , uploaded by kingsnake.com user Krallenfrosch!

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After a long, hard fight against cancer, former New Mexico state herpetologist Charlie Painter succumbed to the disease early this morning. His wife and partner, Lori King Painter, said, “Charlie lived his life with everything fiber of his being, and did not want to leave the world that he loved so much.”

Charlie’s contributions to herpetofauna over the years include authoring over 80 peer reviewed articles, serving as editor for Herpetological Review, and becoming the first state herpetologist for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, a role he held for over 25 years. Charlie authored the 1996 book Amphibians and Reptiles of New Mexico and, with the Museum of Southwestern Biology at the University of New Mexico, helped build and maintain one of the best herpetofauna collections in the nation.

Painter was the 2013 recipient of the Allison Haskell Award for Excellence in Herpetofaunal Conservation from his peers in the Partnership for Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, and his decades-long efforts working with students and herpers of all ages imparted a long-lasting legacy in the herpetology of the western United States.

Photo: Courtesy Lori King Painter
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By Herp News

On a path flanked by thick woods, I first spied our quarry. When she appeared, far away between the long verticals of bare trees, I could hardly believe she was there. She was a ghost, a specter haunting this winter forest. Her horns were prettily curved, her face slender, her whole 400 kilogram (880 pound) mass framed by the trees.

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By Herp News

A new study published in mongabay.com’s open-access journal Tropical Conservation Science describes how the Harapan Rainforest was prior to extensive logging and compares it to its current condition. The authors call for the Harapan’s conservation because it is still very rich in species and holds rare habitats and many endemic plants.

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By Herp News

Poison dart frogs (Dendropatidae), named for their poisonous secretions used by indigenous tribes to coat blow gun darts, may possess another less deadly talent. According to a recent study, published in the journal Biology Letters, the curiously named brilliant-thighed poison frog (Allobatis femoralis) can use its memory to find its way home through the rainforest.

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Kenny and I agreed that it was a long way from North Central Florida to southwest South Dakota just to try to see one little snake, so time and again we delayed the attempt. But finally the time seemed right.

We were planning a salamandering trip that would take us along most of the Pacific Coast so we’d start at the north (Washington) and work our way southward to southern California, then eastward and towards home. By starting in the north we could travel through the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, up into Montana. The time had come to try to see the Black Hills red-bellied snake, Storeria occipitomaculata pahasapae.

We allocated 3 weeks for the entire trip (and as it turned out we used every minute of it), allowing a couple of days to search out the Black Hills target.

Despite locales provided by a friendly researcher, finding the targeted “west of the heartland” red-bellied snake took more time and work that we had thought it would. It seemed that we had arrived a week or two later than was best and the little snakes had already left the hibernaculas. Not only had they dispersed, but seemingly most were already in subsurface retreats.

We persevered and after several hours of searching, Kenny found one of the reclusive and seclusive snakes. It was the only example of the subspecies found. Remembering how difficult it had been to justify the trip to the Black Hills, many more photos than were actually needed were taken.

Then westward, ho!
Continue reading “A Black Hills Venture: The search for a red-bellied snake” …read more
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This rundown of snake fact and fiction may change some minds about the reptiles.

From Live Science:

Snakes play important roles in ecosystems, but they also terrify some people. That fear has led to many myths about snake behavior.

To get to the bottom of some of the assumptions about snakes in the United States and separate fact from fiction, Live Science talked to several snake experts. Here are some commonly held beliefs about snakes and whether they’re true or false.

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The Northern Leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens) is an fairly widespread US Native species that get a spotlight in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Terry_Cox!

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By Herp News

A compilation of new camera trap videos from Yasuni National Park shows off rarely seen species like the rufuos-vented ground cuckoo and the short-eared dog as well as odd behavior, like sloths licking salt from the ground. The compilation is produced by Diego Mosquera, manager and head of the camera trap program at Tiputini Biodiversity Station.

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By Herp News

Fifty miles out to sea from San Diego, in the middle of April, under a perfectly clear blue sky, fisheries scientists leaned over the side of a rubber inflatable boat and lowered a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle into the water. That turtle was a trailblazer — the first of its kind ever released off the West Coast of the United States with a satellite transmitter attached.

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Python! A snake that everyone is aware of because they are found on every continent of earth except Antarctica.

India has three species of pythons that are famous across the world: The reticulated python, the Burmese python, and the most common in India, the Indian rock python, Python molurus molurus. This is a snake that averages 13-16 feet in length, with a maximum of 25 feet. The body has dark brown blotches on a grey, off-white, or pale brown body, with an arrow-shaped incomplete mark on the head.

On a recent trip, our herping destination was Wayanad, a district in Kerala famous for a tea plantation. At around 8 in morning, our teacher, Iqbal Sheikh, my friend Axy, and I were heading toward the forest in our car. Suddenly we saw a crowd of tea farmers gathered on the edge of the road.

After some enquiry, our driver told us there was a big snake in the field, and the farmers were damn scared to enter it. After hearing the word “snake,” the three of us jumped out and entered the farm. I heard my driver saying that it’s a big snake, so I was desperately expecting a king cobra. When I saw the snake, however, it was a 10-foot Indian rock python.

It wasn’t an easy task to catch this fellow, but somehow we managed it. After coming out of the farm with the big guy in hand, everyone from the crowd gave us a big round of applause. The farmers also gave us fresh tea bags.

It was a great achievement for us. The python was a good natured fellow, which made our task easy.

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Citizen scientists are helping researchers learn what rising temperatures mean for Joshua Tree National Park.

From USA Today:

Stortroen, an 82-year-old retired insurance claim center manager from St. Paul, Minn., has joined research outings in places ranging from Australia to South Africa. This was his first time assisting scientists in the Mojave Desert.

“I enjoy the teamwork. I enjoy working with nature,” he said, pausing beside boulders while the group took a break and pulled out their water bottles.

Stortroen was one of 15 Earthwatch volunteers — American, British and Canadian — who helped with the research earlier this month in Joshua Tree National Park. The volunteers split up with park biologists and UC scientists to conduct surveys of plants, count birds and record the numbers of lizards and other reptiles.

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The simple shot of a tree frog in a field of green is hard to beat! We hope you enjoy this shot of a Pseudacris regilla in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user emvee!

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Our Herp Video of the Week is a sneak peek in how professionals extract venom! This flashback video shows the extraction of a king cobra by our friends down at the Kentucky Reptile Zoo. The venom is then used for cancer research.

Submit your own reptile & amphibian videos at http://www.kingsnake.com/video/ and you could see them featured here or check out all the videos submitted by other users! …read more
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By Herp News

The fate of La Sierra del Divisor, a 1.5 million hectare reserve lauded for its megadiversity of wildlife, will soon to be decided. According to El Comercio, next week the Peruvian government is expected to rule whether Divisor will be declared a national park. The designation, which was requested by local groups nearly a decade ago, would strengthen legal protection of the area, which faces logging, mining, coca cultivation, and agricultural encroachment. It would also establish rules for the buffer zone around the potential protected area.

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By Herp News

Energy has become a contentious and politicized topic, spurring activism, whether it be the fossil fuel divestment campaign, Keystone pipeline protests, or concern over wind turbine harm to birds. But whatever energy future we choose, two things are clear: an expanding human population will need more energy, and no matter what energy source we pick, it will have landscape-scale impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

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kingsnake.com staffers Jeff Barringer and Leiren McKenzie (and kingsnake.com’s Zombiehunter snake hunting truck) will be in San Antonio for this year’s International Herp Symposum down at the city’s famous Riverwalk, May 27 through 30.

This year’s event is notable for its distinct “Texas” flavor, both in location and topics, with a variety of talks and lectures by Texas herpers and herpetofauna, including Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Andy Glusenkamp, discussing citizen science in the Lone Star state with the iNaturalist project as well as others.

The symposium, an annual event now in its 38th year, is hosted in a different city every year, and draws herpetologists and herpetoculturists from around the world to discuss a variety of herpetological topics, from captive care and husbandry, to species management and conservation efforts in the wild. The event includes a field trip to the San Antonio Zoo with a VIP “Behind the Scenes” tour of their noted Reptile House, which includes Komodo Dragons among the many species it works with, as well as an optional banquet followed by a live auction. Many guests also plan to make informal field trips to chase reptiles and amphibians through the desert thornscrub.

Registration for the symposium, held at the Hilton Palacio del Rio San Antonio River Walk Hotel, is still open, however the IHS room block is almost full, so you will need to hurry to take advantage of the special room rates offered for this event. For a full breakdown of this years schedule, speakers, and topics, and to register for the event or reserve a room, make sure to check out the IHS web site at http://internationalherpetologicalsymposium.com .

If you plan on sneaking away to go herping, please remember to follow the laws and regulations, and make sure to have the proper licenses and permits. For Texas residents that means a standard hunting license and a Reptile & Amphibian Stamp. Non-residents can go herping with a Non-resident 5-Day Special Hunting License and Reptile & Amphibian stamp. For questions regarding the Reptile & Amphibian stamp, and it’s rules and regulations take a look at TP& W’s Amphibian and Reptile FAQ at https://tpwd.texas.gov/faq/huntwild/amphibian_reptile_stamp.phtml
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The red sand boas (Eryxx johnii) are the most common species of boas found in India after common sand boas.

These snakes are also found in many other African and American countries, and there they are known as rubber boas. I would like to call this snake an ‘alien’ snake because it looks like a snake from a different planet.

The head and the tail of this snake look very simila,r and I’m sure it would be very difficult for the average person to differentiate between the head and the tail of this snake. When the predator attacks this snake, the snake coils up and hides its head under the body and displays its tail so that the predator gets confused and attack its tail instead of head.

Red sand boas have a thick body and the tail is short and blunt. Adult sand boas are brown, sometimes with black or brown blotches or bands. The underside is brown or brownish white and the young ones are reddish-brown with black bands that disappear as the snake grows.

There are many superstitions in India regarding this snake. It is said that these snakes are used in black magic and they have the power to shower money. Many times there have been articles in the newspapers regarding this case.

I am always attracted to this snake because of its out of the world appearance, and it always joyful for me to have this ‘alien’ in my hands.
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Take time this weekend to get your feet in the grass. Follow the lead of this tegu in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Tristen!

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By Herp News

On April 25th, poachers shot and killed wildlife ranger, Agoyo Mbikoyo, in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the organization African Parks. On the frontline of the illegal wildlife trade, Garamba Naitonal Park is known as a hotspot for elephant poaching.

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Amphibian migration season is a little late this year, so if you’re driving in New England be careful.

From Newser:

Northern New England’s annual amphibian migration is always perilous, but critters that cross roads to breed are facing an additional challenge this year: a delayed start after the long winter. Every spring, several species of salamanders and frogs travel to vernal pools —temporary bodies of water created by melted snow—to mate and lay eggs, and the resulting offspring need several months to develop and grow legs before the pools dry up in summer. Wildlife officials say the migration is running a week or two behind this year, cutting into that critical development time. That could affect millions of animals across Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire, says Eric Orff, a wildlife biologist with the National Wildlife Federation.

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It was in the 1980s when I first made a concerted effort to see a flattened musk turtle, Sternotherus depressus.

My interest had been piqued by the news that a single almost white example was in the live collection at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In those long ago days, except to differentiate leucism from albinism, we didn’t differentiate between the various causes of inhibited pigmentation. Since the little turtle did not have the dark eyes associated with leucism, I then and still do refer to the turtle as an albino.

I was happy to have seen the captive specimens at the university, but it was not until just a few years ago that I took the time to look them up in the wild. Since they are a federally endangered turtle species, I thought that they would be difficult to find. This was not at all the case.

After arriving at 2:00PM on a sunny spring afternoon and making my way down a considerable slope and through painful tangles of cat briar, I reached the river’s edge. Within 5 minutes I had seen my first couple of depressus. They were in deep water and I wasn’t able to photograph them.

But in just another few minutes I had found another near the shoreline and a fourth in a small disjunct pool. Photos were taken.

It was a good day.
Continue reading “Endangered but everywhere: Flattened musk turtle” …read more
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There is no denying that “DeNile” is a gorgeous animal that deserves a spot as our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ToucanJungle!

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By Herp News

Diets of snakes from a temperate region in South America may depend more on phylogeny (ancestry) than ecology.

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A boy in India caused a stir by catching the snake that bit him and taking it to the hospital.

From DNA India:

“Sandesh was well informed about the dangers of a snakebite. He very well knew sleeping causes venom to spread rapidly all over the body and hence he did not sleep,” Nayak said. Sumalatha said the snake was not poisonous, but had caused a deep wound around the boy’s knees. “On giving necessary treatment, we found out the boy was not bitten by poisonous snake, but it had caused deep wound around his knee.

As he responded to the treatment quickly, Sandesh was discharged from the hospital after he recovered fully, the doctor said. The boy, on his arrival to the hospital, refused to set the snake free from his bag, but after the treatment it was released into a nearby forest, the boy’s father said.

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A less common, but no less interesting anole, the Escambray bearded anole (Anolis chamaeleolis guamuhaya) takes the spotlight in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user chrisred!

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By Herp News

Think of it as trying to help the long-lost cousins who never left your home town. Researchers and friends at the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) are doing just that for chimpanzees. Our closest living relatives still live in their hometown African forests but these forests are under increasing threat.

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By Herp News

Yesterday, a team of Italian scientists caught a frog in a montane forest in Tanzania. And then they made history: using a small blood sample the team were able to extract, purify, and amplify the amphibian’s DNA—all in the forest—through a new, battery-powered device called the Expedition Genomics Lab.

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Have you ever really considered the mechanics of how snakes climb trees?

From the Daily Mail:

Moving quickly, the top half of the snake ascends the trunk, while the bottom half of it stays coiled lower down.

Wrapping its top half around the tree, the snake then brings the rest of its body up to where its head is and begins tightly coiling itself around the trunk once more.

Once entirely wrapped around the middle section of the tree, the snake again lifts its head and ascends vertically a metre or so.

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