Indian Chameleon (Chamaeleo zeylanicus Laurenti, 1768)

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Forsten’s Cat Snake

I took the dogs out for their evening walk at about 8pm. When I entered the house, heard a hissing sound from behind the store room door. As I was wearing long trousers, and it does make a sound like that when walking ( you need to be in a place like ours to listen to subtle sounds like that !),I was not sure. Anyway opened the door and peeped in. Nothing .
A little later I entered the store room again to switch on the outdoor lights. I saw it then. A very long, slender snake. Very slow in movement. It was 8.30 pm and I was tired. Went and got our transparent “snake-pipe”. covered it with a towel to darken it. Put the pipe in and goaded the snake to enter. But that snake was going anywhere but the pipe. Mind you the store room was tight – 4feet by 4 feet!! there was so many drums kept on the floor. The snake would move from one to another to hide. I slowly removed one drum after another. No more hiding place – both for him and myself!!. I was sweating profusely. Talked to the snake. ” I dont want to kill you. Please move into the pipe.” It seemed to have understood and moved in!! After one hour of goading. . .
Quickly covered the open side of the tube with a cloth and took the towel off! Vow, what a beauty, it was! huge eyes for its small head. vertical slit on the pupils. Thought it was a viper from the head shape and the spring action. But also doubted because Vipers have short tails – this had a very long one. Took a number of pictures. Posted in forums where people help in identifying. Now I know! It is a Forsten’s Cat Snake. Boiga forsteni.
I released it after keeping in captivity for more than twelve hours. It was a bit dizzy; would not come out of the pipe! have to shake it off. . . good bye my friend. This time I was able to save you. . .

Forsten’s cat snake

Forsten’s cat snake

New addition to the family!

99 out of 100 cows are named Lakshmi. For us Vani is closer than the god of wealth! So it is VANI!

Vani, lovely friendly calf!

Vani in her new home. She is a little confused.

Date with Cobra

Arjun happy but the snake?

Bottom of the Cobra 🙂

Beauty!!

Cobra safely inside!

Arjun harping with the snake!

Wolf or Bridal snake?

This was last month’s visitor! Our dog Comet started barking in that strange way whenever he wants to alert us. When we went out, we saw this guy crawled up. We drove him into a long pipe with one end closed. Once he was in, we closed the other end too and left him in the bushes. . .

Wolf or Bride??

New Friend

Thanks to our neighbor Vellaiyan, Arjun has got a new friend. This new friend is defying all the old knowledge 🙂 he moves so fast it is unbelievable!

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This month’s photos

Our slimy comrade.

We heard a great commotion of Myna’s yesterday morning in our upper field. We went to up to see what was it all about. About 6 or 7 mynas were pecking and chasing something on the ground. Then we saw him! The much feared Kattu viriyan! To be specific, it is kannadi viriyan or for the non-tamils Russel’s Viper. Our people working with us wanted to kill it but we stopped them and gave the snake a safe passage!

Cow with a frown!

She did not want to be photographed. She gave that look and went off to her eating spree.

Arjun likes to climb

Our Neigbhors - Pappyi amma and her grand children

Insects, animals. . .

We have been having a great time with life abound us 🙂

A beautiful caterpillar, armed to the hilt!

This beauty was spotted by Aju and promptly caputered in a bottle. He fed it with lots of love & leaves and after a few weeks it turned into a. . .

A huge moth called Atlas. The south american counterpart is the biggest in the world.

Last week our Cat, sweetly called as Mango, delivered her first litter. three tiny catties are mewing all the time.

The new arrivals: photo taken by Arun

Naughty mango brought  a snake for a snack! Comet, our puppie teamed up with her and poor snake didn’t have a chance!

Snack!

Iruthalai manian

We have hired a helper for our farm. His name is Sadaiyan. He comes from a village called Kumbapadi. That village is about 3 km from our house if you climb onto the hill and walk across. If one takes the road it is about 4km. Sadaiyan keeps bringing various stuff which he finds on the way. One day he brought a very ” valuable” item which sells for one lakh rupees. It is .  .  . .the famous double headed, baby snake .

Iru Thalai Manian pambu

Many people believe that this creature has two heads and can move in either direction very fast. This is one of the finest tricks the creature plays on its predators. It is a sand  boa. unlike other snakes, it does not have a proper tail but a blunt tail which looks like head. When threatened, an Indian Sand Boa will hide its head and hold its tail up in the air and wave it back and forth. The moving banded tail is more likely to be attacked than the concealed head.

Our man wanted to keep it and once it is grown sell it. the market price is Rs.100,000 as per his info. We took out our snake book and showed him about this “ulavan pambu” or “iru thalai manian” and explained the tail de-tail! Still unconvinced, he brought  a bowl of water and put the snake inside, saying that both heads will prop up! It didn’t and then he agreed! We left the boa in our farm to breed and live happily ever after!