Telescopus dhara

[skin78]

I am so proud of my new snake ..It is a wildcuaght one but rare to get here in Holland..
It also ate for me :D a small mouse

http://gallery.dierenparadijs.be/data/525/26Telescopus_dhara2-med.jpg

[Vanan]

Wow! Surprised noone said anything to your post. Great snake. Glad to hear it ate for you. Would Dr. Fry care to tell us a lil more bout it's venom?

[skin78]

well he told me that the venom is very potent like deathadders and that they have a large venomyield.. But the snakes are so calm and have small teath so bites are rare.. But still I will hokk this little bugger :D

[Vanan]

Yea, I thought I remembered the high venom yield. Thanks for the info. Hooks all the way baby!

[Dr. Bryan Fry]

Hidy,

Yeah we've played with the venom a bit. It is staggeringly toxic, equal to Acanthophis. The venom glands are also huge, bigger than most elapids. The back teeth are small, however, and the snakes are very placid.

However, neurotoxins are very effectively administered even through a cut so I'd watch out from a bite from a big snake. We have a paper coming out in a couple weeks showing that of the various 'colubrid' families, Colubrinae is the most neurotoxic, with other colubrine snakes besides Telescopus also being very very potent (Boiga is another).

The other 'colubrid' families vary in what area of the body is affected the most. The Homalopsinae seem to be very rich in enzymes that will cause local tissue damage and systemic bleeding has been reported (e.g. big Enhydris specimens); in a viper sorta way. The Xenodontinae do a real number on the blood and muscles (e.g. Philodryas). The Natricinae do really nasty things to the blood (e.g. Rhabdophis and likely Macropisthodon as another bad one). The boomslang (Dipholidus) and Twig snake (Thelatornis) are unique amongst the Colubrinae in that they have a devastating effect upon the blood chemistry; in contrast to other colubrines such as Coluber that are neurotoxic. The Pseudoxyrhophiinae can cause some unpleasent effects (e.g. Madagascarophis) while the Psammophiinae (e.g. Malpolon, Psammophis, Rhamphiophis) have huge venom glands and very complex venom acting on the blood and nerves.

The fangs and venom glands independently evolve as separate variables in the whole equation. Some have tiny fangs (e.g. Telescopus), while others have huge (Xenodon, Rhamphiophis); some have small venom glands (e.g. Coelognathus, Dendrelaphis) while others have good sized venom glands (e.g. Cerberus, Liophis) while others are massive (e.g. Psammophis, Telescopus).

However, most can be easily and safely worked with using even light gardening gloves. :cool: Some of the more specialised such as boomslangs obviously get treated a bit 'special' :eek:

Cheers
B

[Dr. Bryan Fry]

I just had a closer look at that picture. If you look, you can actually see where the venom glands are. The skull is not wider than a typical Coluber like snake but rather it just looks that way because of the pair of huge venom glands strapped on.

Nice pic ;-)

Cheers
B