Turning Japanese.....Sakishima Habus!

Will0W783 · 01-28-13, 09:05 AM

Well, this was an incredibly exciting weekend for me. My mentor has some pink/orange phase Sakishima Habu females (Protobothrops elegans), and I've worked with them a few times and absolutely love them! He told me last weekend about his friend who was selling some Habus, and got me in touch with him.
Saturday morning I drove to meet him and take possession of my new 1.1 breeding pair of pink/orange phase P. elegans. These are some incredibly interesting, alert, and curious vipers. They are native to the Ryukyu Islands in Japan, resting under rocks and in fallen longs, but occasionally taking to the trees. They are long, slender snakes, reaching 2-3 feet in length with heads that closely resemble those of the Bothrops genus...the lancehead vipers. They prefer cool temperatures, often showing the greatest activity when ambient temperatures hit the low 70's or even high 60s (Fahrenheit). They are commonly kept in Europe but almost impossible to find in the USA.
Protobothrops are one of the few viper genera that are oviparous, laying eggs that do best incubated in the mid-70s with moderate humidity, probably representing one of the earlier viperine genera to evolve. Sakishima Habus can be very laid-back, but other specimens can be extremely defensive, not hesitating at all to strike repeatedly and quickly. Venom is largely hemotoxic, resulting in coagulopathy that requires antivenin treatment to reverse; necrosis and tissue destruction is rare, but can be severe in cases where it does occur. Deaths are rare but have been reported.

My pair currently has a bit of stuck shed on them (they went into shed two days before I picked them up and the guy's house was dry from heating), but I am misting them thoroughly twice a day and providing soaks in Shed-Ease to help them loosen the skin. The camera washed them out a bit...the male actually has almost glowing orange-red skin between his scales and copper eyes. The female is a bit longer and duller and has silver eyes. She is the one in the log hide in the pictures, while the male is up top.

female exploring:

Male hanging out:

rmfsnakes32 · 01-28-13, 09:28 AM

Very cool looking snakes

DragonsEye · 01-28-13, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will0W783

Protobothrops are one of the few viper genii that are oviparous, laying eggs that do best incubated in the mid-70s with moderate humidity, probably representing one of the earlier viperine genii to evolve.

"Genii"? There are viper genies slithering around? While I can see how they would have a much easier time getting in and out of their genie lamp, I would much prefer having Barbara Eden come out of the lamp.

I take it you meant viper "genera"?

Are these two together for mating purposes or quarantine currently, or can they actually be housed together permanently? Beautiful creatures.

Will0W783 · 01-28-13, 01:46 PM

Yes, I did mean genera. I'd read a few papers where they used "genii" as the plural form. Genera or genuses....whatever you prefer.

They are together for now for breeding purposes, and for quarantine. They will be separated once the female shows signs of being gravid, or summer comes....whichever happens first.

Hillsberry · 01-28-13, 02:39 PM

Beautiful critters Kim!

Will0W783 · 01-28-13, 02:44 PM

Thanks Hillary!

ada-man-teus · 01-28-13, 05:18 PM

habus are cool...saw a great special on them some time ago

DragonsEye · 01-28-13, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will0W783

Yes, I did mean genera. I'd read a few papers where they used "genii" as the plural form. Genera or genuses....whatever you prefer.

Really? How bizarre. Genera is the only correct plural of genus. Wonder where those papers came up with their variant.

SSSSnakes · 01-28-13, 07:45 PM

Very nice and healthy looking pair. You have a cool collection, at least what I've seen of it.

Rogue628 · 01-28-13, 09:07 PM

Very beautiful! Congrats on your latest acquisitions!

Will0W783 · 01-29-13, 09:33 AM

DragonsEye, I had a mod edit the correct plural for "genus" into the opening post. I usually am pretty good with terms, and am now embarrassed at my mistake. But I really don't see why you had to make such a big deal of it...it was a simple error. I know I've seen it written that way before; perhaps the source I read was in error, but still...

BarelyBreathing · 01-29-13, 02:20 PM

Oh my gosh.... I'm jealous. I miss seeing this in the wild. Well, not that locality, but habus in general.

Will0W783 · 01-29-13, 08:13 PM

What habus have you seen, Barely Breathing? The Okinawa ones are crazy beautiful, but very aggressive.

BarelyBreathing · 01-29-13, 09:08 PM

Yep, the Okinawan ones. I lived on Okinawa for a year. I had some great experiences there. There's a snake show down in Ryukyu Mura that deals with habus and some cobras. I only understood about half of the show, but they were really keen on education. I've also seen a few while hiking. They are very quick to get out of your way. I did help the MPs removed one from my neighbor's porch stoop. That one was particularly aggressive, but I would have been in that situation, too. People were throwing things at it for the better part of an hour.

Will0W783 · 01-30-13, 08:42 AM

Wow, that sounds like an awesome experience! I'd be pretty upset too if I was that snake. The show I saw on the Okinawa Habu portrayed them as particularly aggressive snakes, but a lot of tv shows aren't very accurate.

My two are extremely pleasant mannered vipers. I fed them last night and they were so polite about it. The male came up slowly to the tongs and just grasped the food and started to retreat. The female ran away but came back and gently took hers.