Stephens, paleys and broadies, .. Hops!

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Hoplo

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Hoplo appreciation thread!

lets make it as big as the old elapid thread .

post your captive or wild Hoplo pics!

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surely someone has something to share
 
I love bungaroides, defs one of my fav elapids unfortunately never seen any hops in person
 
Hoplo appreciation thread!

lets make it as big as the old elapid thread .

post your captive or wild Hoplo pics!

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View attachment 317633

- - - Updated - - -

surely someone has something to share

Mmm, I had a large female Stephen's Banded here for a while a few years back (I removed her from a neighbour's laundry)... probably the most evil snake I've ever handled! Not flashy aggro the way the Brown Snakes are, but dark and secretive and always waiting. I didn't even like having her in the house actually, and not things to be messed with following the recent fatality on the mid-north coast. We see a few of them around here on the roads at night. I believe the other two species are a lot less twitchy?

Jamie
 
PICT0202.jpg NSW Blue Mountains S1030225.jpg NSW Mid North Coast

They are all a bit troppo Jamie. I've kept heaps of all 3 species over the years. The black H bitorquatus from the NSW New England probably have the worst temperament. Had a few friends get tagged by all 3 species over the years as well. I remember I nearly lost one mate to a huge bungaroides when we were young. Another mate got tagged by a big bungaroides while photographing it in situ and he only survived because his mate was big enough to carry him about 3 kilometres through the scrub to their car and drive him to hospital. I remember that another big bungaroides put the late Eric Worrell in hospital for a week.

I can't remember how many bungaroides I've collected over the years. There were days when I'd catch and release up to a dozen over a couple of hours collecting. We get heaps of Stevens around here. The place where that bloke died of the Stevens bite is only about 10 kilometres from my place as the crow flies.

Love them, beautiful snakes with heaps of attitude.

Cheers,

George.
 
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sounds like you have lived/are living my absolute dream GB, i haven't found the last two hops
yet that i haven't got pictured ..

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all pale heads i have worked with have been pretty calm
 
This one came from a persons ensuite, a midnight call out. It was pretty flighty and definatly didn't like being touched or tailed. Its a species I have a lot of respect for, and closely related to tigers

George.... is that the hoppo bite that Worrel wrote about.... (maybe song of the snake??) he got tagged and then had to run for a train, where he then sat there for the whole journey paralysed with dribble running down his chin and the other passengers thought he was drunk?
 

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View attachment 317696 NSW Blue Mountains View attachment 317697 NSW Mid North Coast

They are all a bit troppo Jamie. I've kept heaps of all 3 species over the years. The black H bitorquatus from the NSW New England probably have the worst temperament. Had a few friends get tagged by all 3 species over the years as well. I remember I nearly lost one mate to a huge bungaroides when we were young. Another mate got tagged by a big bungaroides while photographing it in situ and he only survived because his mate was big enough to carry him about 3 kilometres through the scrub to their car and drive him to hospital. I remember that another big bungaroides put the late Eric Worrell in hospital for a week.

I can't remember how many bungaroides I've collected over the years. There were days when I'd catch and release up to a dozen over a couple of hours collecting. We get heaps of Stevens around here. The place where that bloke died of the Stevens bite is only about 10 kilometres from my place as the crow flies.

Love them, beautiful snakes with heaps of attitude.

Cheers,

George.

I have to agree that visually they have a lot of appeal - sleek satiny things with variable and interesting markings. I think it was the small black beady eyes of the SB girl that sent shivers down my spine (similar to those big fat brown crickets that bite - they make my skin crawl - I'd sooner spend a night in a room with 20 Tiger Snakes than one of those damned things lol!). Thanks for the info on the close-calls too George, I didn't know that they generally pack such a big wallop. It surprises me when I see how casual people are with the Hops, I guess because they are mostly fairly small. If I wanted to go through the ven hoops, I wouldn't mind setting up some terrariums for these species - maybe something for another day. Given the bureaucratic interest in H. bungaroides these days, is anyone breeding them with any regularity in NSW?

Jamie
 
Hey, could hops be kept outside? I would assume they would make decent outdoor pit/aviary inhabitants?

Personally Caterpillars and Grub-like bugs creep the bajeesus out of me - give me a texty any day!
 
i have never heard of hops being kept outside, i personally would maybe opt for a large female Stephens in a smallish aviary in a rain forest yard, other than that i would be afraid of escapees
 
Hi Cement,

Yeah I'm pretty sure that that's the story in Song of the Snake but honestly I can't recall were I read it. Might have been an article in an old Herpetofauna or something similar, I'm not sure.

Yeah Jamie there are guys breeding bungaroides but as far as regularity goes I'm not sure. It wouldn't take me much to find out if your ever interested. I know they fetch a rather hefty price and I'm pretty sure that they have to be micro chipped. This alone and outside all the bureaucracy BS involved with keeping them is enough to put me off having any these days. I've often thought about ditching my current collection and just going back to keeping hops again but at the moment I haven't got the time or place to keep anything else. Not saying that it won't happen in the future...hahaha.

Cheers to both of you,

George.
 
Yes George, I think bungaroides keepers are subject to a great deal of scrutiny by wildlife guys, with DNA sampling to prove parentage and microchipping being mandatory I believe. Maybe one day when I'm cashed up I'll consider adding the Hops, and I'd like to do it in some sort of naturalistic way with fresh air and natural temperature regimes - I'm less & less interested in keeping critters in boxes these days...

Jamie
 
That's a shame Jamie, I've always wanted to keep Hops. Perhaps a pit enclosure would suit bungaroides, seeing as it isn't as arboreal?
 
broad heads move to tree's during the summer, they are just as arboreal as the rest
 
Actually Hoplo there is no proof that they do. Worrell was the first to state this but it appears that it was only an assumption. Webb also made the same assumption in his paper on them. They are however designed for and very, very good at, climbing the steep, at times near vertical, faces of sandstone escarpments.

George.
 
i have only seen a few pics of them sheltering in hollows in the warmer months, i dont know much about them as im not based down in NSW
 
credit for this photo goes to Tony Markham
on flickr.com


Picture1.jpg
 
Nice photo. First I've ever seen of one in such a position. Looks pretty natural and I hope it isn't staged. I've argued over the years that considering the vulnerability of coastal heath to fierce fires during the summer months I don't see what advantages they would have by sheltering in trees during this period.

A lot of assumption appeared to be based on observations that they seem to disappear off the ridge tops during the hotter months of the year. I'd argue the point based on the above and also because I've often located them in crevices on the sides of north east & north west escarpments during summer where they are not only provided shelter from predators but also the excessive heat during the day.

George.

Ps: I've just viewed all the pics of bungaroides on flickr.com and am off the opinion that except the one in the crevice by Chris Jolly and possibly another by Pete Darwood all the rest (including this one) are staged.
 
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