Golden Tree Snake
by Michelle Meenawong
Title
Golden Tree Snake
Artist
Michelle Meenawong
Medium
Photograph - Metal Print
Description
GOLDEN TREE SNAKE CHRYSOPELEA ORNATA ORNATISSIMA COMMON IN THAILAND
These are like the road runner of snakes. they are super fast, thin, and agile. They can climb trees and bushes faster than any other snake and they are wicked fast on the strike.
These are very common snakes in Thailand, they are definitely one of the top 5 snakes you are likely to see in this country. They are constantly snaking across the roads. Once they hit the green brush they are impossible to find or catch if you do see them.
These snakes bite fast and often, and they do have venom, but the venom is only toxic to frogs, lizards, and other small animals not usually humans. If you happen to be allergic to the venom, you could still go into shock.
Appearance: Chrysopelea ornata in Thailand is lime green with some black and green cross hatches. This snakes head is rather flat with a thin neck and atypical blunt nose, large eyes which sometimes are red depending on the angle.
Length: Up to 140 cm (almost 5 feet). They only get about as thick as 2-3 fingers held together.
Range: All over Thailand and many countries in Southeast Asia.
Habitat: Golden Tree Snakes can be found just about anywhere in an apartment in Bangkok, or climbing bushes at 500 meters vertical elevation. Typically I see them at sea-level crossing the roads, or laying flat out along the stem of a low-lying palm tree branch.
Notes: If youre trying to catch one of these snakes it can be very difficult. They are excellent escape artists and once they get into a clump of bushes or up a tree forget it. Go look for something else, you wont catch it. They can disappear in trees so fast its hard to believe.Occasionally you can find these in caves they eat bats too.
Active Time? Diurnal daytime.
Food: Small geckos, lizards, large Tokay geckos, rodents, bird eggs, insects, another snake occasionally, and bats. Golden Tree Snakes kill by squeezing the neck of their prey, crushing it.
Natural Enemies: King cobras and Kraits will eat these snakes when they can catch them. When they are small, birds eat them.
Defensive Behavior: Golden Tree Snakes (flying snakes) bite quickly when played with. They are very fast snakes when escaping.
Venom Toxicity: Rear fanged mildly venomous snake but the venom is not known to be dangerous to humans. Just the same, don't let it bite down on you more than a second or two before you remove it. Don't give this snake a chance to inject a lot of venom and you'll likely be just fine if no allergies to it. There have been no confirmed cases of medically significant envenomation with Golden Tree Snakes.
Offspring: Little is known about the breeding habits of these snakes because nobody can seem to get them to mate while captive. Being oviparous it lays 6-12 eggs in May-June and they hatch in June. Baby snakes are 11-15cm long (4-6″)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Colubridae
Subfamily: Colubrinae
Genus: Chrysopelea
Species: C. ornata
Binomial name: Chrysopelea ornata
Discovered, classified by Shaw, 1802
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NATURAL HISTORY
SNAKES
Uploaded
May 18th, 2019
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