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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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« The cursed undead heart of the vengeful bride of the son of the thread that will not die! | Main | And she sounded so nice on the phone »
Mary's Monday Metazoan: Where's Waldo, the Gabon viper?
Category: Organisms
Posted on: October 19, 2009 8:20 AM, by PZ Myers
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TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/122647
Comments
Posted by: neon-elf.myopenid.com
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October 19, 2009 8:24 AM
Wow. Nice camouflage. I had to look at an enlargement to even spot the little bugger.
And then my snake-phobia kicked in and all my body hairs are now on end. brrrr.
Posted by: Pongo | October 19, 2009 8:28 AM
Anyone mind telling me where the snake is? Can't see him.
Posted by: recovering catholic | October 19, 2009 8:30 AM
My very favorite snake! Absolutely gorgeous.
Posted by: Richard Eis
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October 19, 2009 8:32 AM
-Anyone mind telling me where the snake is? Can't see him.-
Click on the photo to enlarge it. Otherwise you don't stand a chance. I wouldn't want to spoil it for you by just telling.
Posted by: Fred The Hun | October 19, 2009 8:33 AM
Well I grew up in the wilds of Brazil so maybe my eyes are better trained than the average urban dweller accustomed to living in shopping malls. I immediately spotted the curved body under the branch then looked for the head in the leaves.
It is pointing towards the lower left quadrant of the picture.
Posted by: Fred The Hun | October 19, 2009 8:34 AM
OOOps! I mean lower right quadrant.
Posted by: recovering catholic | October 19, 2009 8:38 AM
PZ--that's Gaboon viper...
Posted by: Ian Menzies | October 19, 2009 8:40 AM
"then looked for the head in the leaves.
It is pointing towards the lower right quadrant of the picture."
Oh wow! I saw the body in the enlarged picture, but until you pointed it out I thought the head was under a big leaf, but no, that big leaf IS the head.
Posted by: aratina cage
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October 19, 2009 8:46 AM
Spam in a can! That's huge! I would never have seen the real head if you hadn't pointed it out.Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM
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October 19, 2009 9:00 AM
I was able to see the snake without enlarging the photo. For those who can't, I recommend staying away from Gabon.
Posted by: Paul Lundgren
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October 19, 2009 9:01 AM
@aratina cage:
Until it was too late, that is.Posted by: Leftoflarry | October 19, 2009 9:01 AM
Nice snake, and it is indeed Gabon Viper not Gaboon. :) Largest fangs of all the viperids, scary thought considering their cryptic coloration. Watch where you step!!!
Posted by: azportsider
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October 19, 2009 9:13 AM
Great shot of a truly dangerous herp! Hope the photographer stayed well away and used a long telephoto. It's just too bad the eyes don't show well--they're silver. All in all, this snake just looks like it can kill you, and it sure can. The rear of the head is large to accommodate enormous venom glands; and, as has been mentioned, the fangs are the longest known, the better to deliver that venom where it can do the most damage.
Posted by: Joshua White | October 19, 2009 9:16 AM
Beautiful reptiles. If any of you ever get to go to the San Diego zoo or the Fort Worth zoo you can get a really close look (inches away). That and green mambas have the most beautiful patterns and colors I have seen on reptiles.
Posted by: bcoppola
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October 19, 2009 9:29 AM
Judging from the perspective and depth of field, esp. the large curved branch leading out of the upper R. of the photo, the brave (or foolish) photog was up close with a moderately wide angle lens.
Posted by: Dahan
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October 19, 2009 9:34 AM
Roger that. I think I will.
Posted by: IBYea
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October 19, 2009 9:46 AM
This sort of feel like I am playing I Spy. ^_^ I could barely spot it.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | October 19, 2009 9:46 AM
I found the head very quickly because it's symmetric. The rest took… longer.
Posted by: Kargoneth | October 19, 2009 10:05 AM
Took me 20 seconds to find it... I'd be toast in real life by the time 20 seconds came by. Nice picture. That was cool.
Posted by: Ian Glendinning | October 19, 2009 10:06 AM
The interesting thing - if it's not a snake you already recognize - is that the symmetrical head is obvious even at first glance. But it is not at all obvious that it is in fact a head, attached to a snake of contrasting colour - even after you have detected the body texture amongst the forest floor detritus. Clever.
Posted by: ButchKitties | October 19, 2009 10:15 AM
We have one of those at the Indianapolis Zoo. These vipers are beautiful, but they have simply ENORMOUS heads. All the better to house the correspondingly huge fangs and venom glands.
Damn, Nature. You scary.
Posted by: skylyre
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October 19, 2009 10:16 AM
Wow I didn't even notice the head until I stared at the enlarged pic for about 20 seconds. I was like "Ok I see the body... his head must be under that big tan leaf! Ohhhh."
Posted by: Wendigo1 | October 19, 2009 10:28 AM
Used to own a few of these. Beautiful snakes and and they make great burglar alarms, too. When you come near they suck in a big breath and then make a nice loud hiss. Not quite as frightening as the spitting sound a cobra makes but close...
Posted by: Peter Ashby
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October 19, 2009 10:45 AM
I spotted the head first. Had to enlarge to see the body, but that means I'm alive and unpoisoned on my trek through the West African jungle. That 'leaf' just screamed PIT VIPER at me and I even grew up in New Zealand, no snakes, not even in the zoo.
Posted by: Eddie Janssen | October 19, 2009 10:57 AM
How do they ever find each other...
Posted by: shaunotd
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October 19, 2009 10:58 AM
Lawks!
Posted by: Fred The Hun | October 19, 2009 11:06 AM
Joshua White @ 14,
Funny you should mention green mambas. Some poor cable installation tech was recently bitten by one only a few blocks from my home in Hollywood Florida As far as I know that one is still on the loose.
http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=10973803
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM
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October 19, 2009 11:06 AM
That beats Ireland, which has no wild snakes but does have snakes in zoos.
How did St. Patrick drive the snakes out of Ireland? He gathered all the snakes together and said, "Any snake that wants to stay, raise your hand."
Posted by: aratina cage
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October 19, 2009 11:15 AM
"I found the head very quickly because it's symmetric."
And leaves are not? *looks at photo again* OIC, I guess I'll have to remember that spotting trick when tramping through a snake-friendly forest, but I'm not entirely convinced the method is sound. Anyway, I'm dead already while writing this. :P
Posted by: EWC | October 19, 2009 11:25 AM
@14 -- I love this snake largely b/c of the Fort Worth Zoo. My oldest son went to zoo school there, and on his birthday a few years ago, the animal of the day was the Gaboon Viper. My wife made a lovely cupcake snake for the occasion. Good times.
And though it is extremely venomous, my recollection is that it is an ambush hunter, and is not terribly aggressive.
I just overcome my extreme laziness, and looked it back up on Wikipedia. I love this quote,
Posted by: Gyeong Hwa Pak | October 19, 2009 11:27 AM
Oh, I thought the snake was the branch for awhile.
Posted by: darvolution proponentsist | October 19, 2009 11:27 AM
Now there's 18lbs of "don't fuck with me" if ever I saw it.
Posted by: Gregory Greenwood
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October 19, 2009 12:00 PM
Here we have a snake in the leaves, as opposed to creationists who are snakes in the grass.
Posted by: Gregory Greenwood
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October 19, 2009 12:03 PM
I have never had much time for the biblical injunction to 'crush the head of the serpent'. I find snakes strangely beautiful creatures. So long as I can observe them from a safe distance, that is. Or preferably an image of one on a computer screen, as here. I never said I was brave.
Posted by: Notagod | October 19, 2009 12:09 PM
It would have been interesting if the caption stated something like 'look at the beautiful frog on the tree' (of course it would be best if there were a frog to see). Then see how long it would take for someone to spot the snake. That would be a better assessment of supposing you would survive the danger.
Posted by: Holydust | October 19, 2009 12:25 PM
@ButchKitties: Thanks for the laugh. A more appropriate quote I couldn't manage.
Posted by: Holydust | October 19, 2009 12:28 PM
P.S. 4chan's beloved "when you see it, you'll sh*t bricks" also came to mind.
Posted by: stillwaggon
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October 19, 2009 12:35 PM
I used to work at a large zoo. One night a kid broke into the reptile house, smashed the glass on a display, and put a sleepy Gabon viper in a pillowcase. Then he got on a bus and headed who-knows-where. Fortunately, the bus stop where he was getting off was right in front of a fire station. When he got out of his seat and threw the pillowcase over his shoulder, that was just the last straw for the justifiably annoyed viper, which then bit him. He yelped that he'd been snakebit. The EMTs got him to the hospital quickly. The hospital woke up my friend the reptile foreman who was in charge of the antivenin supply at the zoo; he was often called to hospitals to identify snakes and possibly supply available antivenin. He hit the ground running, rushed to the zoo for the supplies, noticed the broken case, and knew exactly what he needed. The kid recovered and was photographed at the zoo in front of the restored viper exhibit. I don't know what he originally intended to do with the snake, but he enjoyed the attention he got. This was about 30 years ago. That kid may be middle-aged now, if he survived his lifestyle.
Posted by: Peter Ashby
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October 19, 2009 12:51 PM
@'Tis Himself
So then, you have Outed St Patrick, he was no saint. He was obviously a parseltongue speaking wizard.
Auckland zoo does have some legless lizards, but that is the closest that is allowed. Occasionally one is found dead/sluggish due to cold, you get frosts even in Auckland in the winter. They are assumed to have come in in a container load of something exotic and tropical. Also sea snakes, in poor condition, are sometimes washed up onto the beaches in the far North.
That is it. Fun can be had going walking in the bush (native forest) with Aussies new to New Zealand. When you blithely step over logs lying over the path they will screech at you since in Oz you don't do that without peering over to see what might be sitting on the other side*. Takes them a while to get over that, unless they fall over a bluff, drown in a river or simply get lost and die of exposure first. We lose a few tourists those ways each year. A recent one was ignoring the warning signs and going and standing underneath the face of an active glacier. They had to leave the bodies there for several days so nobody else died going to get them until it was deemed safe. The ice lying on top of them kept the bodies fresh.
*Remembering that Australia has 9 of the 10 most venomous snakes in the world, this is a good idea, there.
Posted by: ButchKitties | October 19, 2009 2:43 PM
@Peter Ashby
Doesn't Australia have 9 out of 10 of the World's Most Venomous Everything? Funnel web and redback spiders, Irukandji, and the blue-ringed octopus spring to mind. Something about that continent seems to discourage placentas and encourage scary venom loads.
I want to visit, but I'd have to buy a full suit of armor first.
Posted by: Peter Ashby
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October 19, 2009 2:58 PM
@ButchKitties
To be fair I have been to Australia and the only snakes I saw were in Perth zoo. I have run around Canberra including up the Black Mountain and saw nothing venomous. Mind you colleagues who went bathing in Lake Burley Griffin swore that one of them stepped on a snake in the water. I wanted to know how they knew it wasn't an eel.
I am also told there are, some, beaches where you can swim without danger from stonefish, blue-ringed octopus, box jellyfish or sea snakes. I am also told they have measures to deter the sharks*.
*Again being fair we do have sharks in NZ, white pointers#, threshers, hammerheads, mako, tiger (occasional visitor to the far north) and whale as well as others. I don't think the bull shark is there though which is a real problem shark in the Indian ocean.
#recently some divers just north of Wellington were about to get back into the water when a 5m great white turned up and spent the next hour or so circling their boat. Mind you a seal (their commonest prey) and a human in a wetsuit can look mighty similar to a short sighted hunter.
Posted by: Nebula99
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October 19, 2009 3:35 PM
I am so dead. Also, the blasted pic won't enlarge when I click it. I want to go to Australia someday, but I will make sure to have a good tour guide and an epic medicine kit.
Posted by: MadScientist
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October 19, 2009 5:40 PM
Aww, it's all tangled up in the leaf litter. Nice serpent ... 4cm fangs - dang - the article could have at least told where the fangs are located and how they're shaped so I have some chance of wearing the right gear just in case I spooked one.
@Nebula99 #42: No need for much of a med kit unless you believe all the fireside stories. Most snakes never attack unless (1) needs food or (2) is somehow threatened. If you see a snake, just watch it. If it slithers towards you it probably wants to get past you (I've never heard of a snake with humans high on its menu). Of the numerous snake stories I've heard, I've seen absolutely no evidence for their veracity - they're told by clueless scared people and repeated by more clueless scared people. Trying to whack a snake is one sure way to aggravate it and boost chances of actually being bit - but even then, many snakes would still prefer to slither away than to attack (and I'm sure many have died while trying to escape a vicious human). I've seen many hundreds of snakes over the years (and probably over 20 species); I just go about my business and they go about theirs - usually I see them while they're sunning themselves.
Posted by: Ed Darrell | October 19, 2009 6:01 PM
Stillwaggon? The National Zoo?
When we worked in Washington, D.C., there was this stupendous story about a kid who stole a Gaboon Viper from the zoo at closing, and put it in a plastic sack. He got on a bus to make his escape. A couple of blocks later he pulled the alarm to stop the bus, and got off and collapsed.
Here's where the astounding coincidences kick in. That bus was one of a tiny handful that had just been equipped with two-way radios in a pilot project. The bus driver radioed for help and mentioned the snake. Two blocks away there was a D.C. cop who just a few days before had completed a snake identification course. He responded, and recognized the Gaboon Viper. Because he called it in as a Gaboon Viper, the hospital was able to get the only vial of antivenin sent to meet the kid at the emergency room, and they saved his life.
When I checked the story a few years ago, I hoped the kid had grown up to be a world-famous herpetologist, or trauma surgeon, or something. But he didn't. He did survive, though.
I found a follow-up on the kid in the Washington Post. Heck, it might even be on line these days.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
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October 19, 2009 6:27 PM
Yeah, it really should be "Gaboon."
Here are the fangs.
Posted by: Just Al | October 19, 2009 7:12 PM
As others have mentioned, one of the better ways to identify camouflaged animals is by the symmetry of the pattern, and it's one that I usually rely on (and even teach.) But it is a bit sneaky to match the pattern of something, like leaves, which are usually symmetrical anyway.
Once you get used to them, you can also spot a lot of snakes by the body taper. Branches rarely taper as quickly or evenly as a snake's body does.
And I'll agree with bcoppola - the photographer is quite close with a wider angle lens. And if he wasn't using a full-frame camera (digital or film), I'd say he was way too close. A good pic is one thing, but even with antivenin in hand that's a risky shot. The snake's probably asleep, but still...
Posted by: Salt | October 19, 2009 7:47 PM
Puts the little striped garter snakes that live in my stacked stone wall all to shame. Of course, with the way I react to them, you'd think they were Gabon[Gaboon] vipers--at least that's what my amused neighbors say... when they stop laughing.
Salt
Posted by: Quine | October 19, 2009 7:49 PM
Ref pic of Gabon viper:
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/lizards/images/gallery/lg/gabon_viper_6297f_lg.jpg
Posted by: Brock Lee | October 19, 2009 8:54 PM
Richard Dawkins has an excellent presentation on Evolution of Camouflage in which he discusses predators spotting camouflaged insects.
Posted by: Richard Healy | October 19, 2009 9:21 PM
Leaf litter. front and centre. being colourblind does occasionally have an advantage.
Posted by: Brock Lee | October 19, 2009 9:21 PM
According to the University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web, there are no known predators of gaboon vipers. The vipers are helpful in controlling the rodent population.
Posted by: Noni Mausa | October 19, 2009 11:42 PM
We here in central Canada had a fellow in 2008 who had one as a pet, got bitten on the FACE (geez Louise!) and survived. The story is here http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2008/10/21/gaboon-viper.html and includes a lovely head shot of a Gaboon or Gabon viper, showing the silvery eyes that were mentioned upthread.
Some people have no damn sense at all.
Posted by: SantacruzOM | October 20, 2009 9:52 AM
Beautiful death machine.
Posted by: Sili
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October 20, 2009 6:23 PM
I only sorta found the body by luck. The head eluded me until it was pointed out.
Weren't the vipers driven out of Ireland Celtic Christians?