A cheeky snake ID

[MAIA77]

Hola! I'm having mates over and they have been watered & fed and we were discussing this site. My friends, one South African who's dealt with snakes in Transvaal, one Kenyan who works in a pet store that once sold rats to Tara Moss and an Englishman who has "come across snakes in either food form or pet form" He's 44, traveled the world, I forgive him. Some parts of the world view snake as a delicacy.


I digress, we got to chatting about this site and the South African wanted to know if anyone out there knows the answer to this question:

"In the movie Gladiator, the evil emperor's adviser spoke about a sea snake that would lie still and would even let other fish or enemies take a nibble of it until the opportune moment came for it to strike. So what type of snake would that be?"

 

[antaresia_boy]

on the subject of gladiator, the 'deadly' snake they slip into the guys bed to kill him-corn snake lol.

 

[DanTheMan]

on the subject of gladiator, the 'deadly' snake they slip into the guys bed to kill him-corn snake lol.

Oh god I hate movies with "Deadly Snakes" when they are all harmless, and its so obvious!
Indiana Jones - pit of deadly "asps" look like boa constrictors to me (among many other harmless constrictors)

Sorry I have nothing constructive:?
And sorry to hijack your thread!

 

[MAIA77]

That's ok, it's just a bit of trivia, we're all a bit drunk and merry!

 

[moosenoose]

The lethal diamond python guarding the gyro-captains (sounds like a lebanese take-away :lol chopper rings a bell

 

[BenReyn]

The entire movie 'snakes on a plane' rings a bell...

lol

 

[noidea]

I think the common olive sea snake does it I'm sure I saw it on a doco i'tll let its prey come very close and even let it have a nibble before it so nails it's @#$# but not sure bout the flick in question sorry...

 

[callith]

The entire movie 'snakes on a plane' rings a bell...

lol

Wasn't that just the biggest waste of about 2hours ever, although i did watch it during maths...still up there with the worst movies i've ever seen.

 

[MAIA77]

never saw snakes on a plane...the preview looked ****e, can't believe Samuel L Jackson played in that movie, I mean from that cool cat in pulp fiction, surely he could have gotten better roles!

 

[eipper]

Hi all,

I spoke about this in a paper I wrote on Captive Husbandry of Hydrophiids awhile back.

Pelamis platurus (Pelagic or Yellow Bellied Sea Snakes) often live in true open water. They lie motionless on the water's surface. This attracts small fish to the snake (fish will congregate under objects for protection, in open water there is very few hiding spots). The fish tend to hide around the snakes tail, the snake then swims backwards (they are the only sea snake that does this) so the fish are now congregated around the snakes head. A sidesways strike and the snake has its meal. Pelamis have evolved to do this as the fangs are basically mid mounted in the mouth. to increase the chance of envenomation.

Cheers,
Scott Eipper

 

[jessb]

one Kenyan who works in a pet store that once sold rats to Tara Moss

Not the actual point of your thread, but I have always loved Tara Moss - then I found out the other day that she has a BHP and a Coastal! I hope to meet her in a couple of weeks at a charity event so I'll have a conversation starter!