Beautiful Animals

Krait (sea snake):

http://www.rybafish.umclidet.com/zmey/sea_snake_krait_20299-120.jpg

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Roberta: Here had a little information on the banded sea snake that I posted on another thread:

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The snakes encountered on Fiji are the banded sea snakes or kraits. They are the only oviparous sea snake which means that they come ashore to lay they eggs. Other sea snakes give live birth. This accounts for their occurance on land on the Survivor series. The snakes shown are Laticauda colubrina or Laticauda laticaudatus another similar species. This species is dangerously poisonous, but I saw a photo of a Phd student at the University of Florida holding one of these snakes, apparantly unconcerned about being bitten.

To those who haven't seen the current "Survivor" series, some banded sea snakes were crawling on Exile Island. They are a poisonous species, and that raised two questions: were the contestents aware that they were poisonous, and why were marine snakes on the land. The oviparity of these snakes answers the second question: they came ashore to lay their eggs. Here is a website of a graduate student herpetologist in Florida. She is handling a banded sea snake with apparent unconcern over its danger, because the head is free. Look on the upper left of the page for the picture. Laticauda colubrina

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Thanks for that info, Coluber. I believe the people on Survivor have been informed that the snakes are venomous. One contestant killed one that was coming close.

Saw something interesting the other night about snake maternity. It is believed that a breed of python (maybe the rock python?) stays with and tends to her babies for several weeks after they're born. Never heard this about snakes before.

http://big_game.at.infoseek.co.jp/combat/cb02/AfricanRockPython.jpg

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Purple finch:

Fairy wrasse:

http://www.thepetstop.com/adminpics/21888.jpg

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Humboldt squid:

Hyacinth macaws:

http://www.indonesian-parrot-project.org/images/photogallery/otherwild/HyacinthsinFlight.jpg

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coluber2001 wrote:

Krait (sea snake):

Roberta: Here had a little information on the banded sea snake that I posted on another thread:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The snakes encountered on Fiji are the banded sea snakes or kraits. They are the only oviparous sea snake which means that they come ashore to lay they eggs. Other sea snakes give live birth. This accounts for their occurance on land on the Survivor series. The snakes shown are Laticauda colubrina or Laticauda laticaudatus another similar species. This species is dangerously poisonous, but I saw a photo of a Phd student at the University of Florida holding one of these snakes, apparantly unconcerned about being bitten.

To those who haven't seen the current "Survivor" series, some banded sea snakes were crawling on Exile Island. They are a poisonous species, and that raised two questions: were the contestents aware that they were poisonous, and why were marine snakes on the land. The oviparity of these snakes answers the second question: they came ashore to lay their eggs. Here is a website of a graduate student herpetologist in Florida. She is handling a banded sea snake with apparent unconcern over its danger, because the head is free. Look on the upper left of the page for the picture. Laticauda colubrina[/quote]

Coluber: I have a question. If the snakes we see on land are there for the sole purpose of laying eggs, does this mean that the only snakes we see on land are female? If so, do the males ever come on land?

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Kit fox:

http://www.animals-pictures-dictionary.com/files/images/194.jpg

Christmas tree worms:

http://www.planula.com.au/dive/uwphoto2005/large/christmastree_worm.jpg

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Dall (white sheep):

http://www.wildnatureimages.com/images%202/040917-027..jpg

Not sure what kind of fish this is. Sorry:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42100000/jpg/_42100386_purplefish_ap.jpg

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Clownfish with sea anemones:

http://www.valdosta.edu/~jlgoble/tclown1.jpg

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Hi Jes, thanks for the wonderful photo. Just did a bit of reading about anemones and clownfish. I thought that the clownfish in the picture might have been on its way to being devoured by the anenome. Nope. Clownfish are immune to the poison of the anemone and like to hang out in the anemone's tentacles for safetly. Live and loin.

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Roberta wrote:

Thanks for that info, Coluber. I believe the people on Survivor have been informed that the snakes are venomous. One contestant killed one that was coming close.

Saw something interesting the other night about snake maternity. It is believed that a breed of python (maybe the rock python?) stays with and tends to her babies for several weeks after they're born. Never heard this about snakes before.

It's interesting that pythons are able to generate body heat to incubate their clutches of egg, which they coil around.

A lot is being learned about snakes and other reptiles. It used to be thought that snakes either retained their eggs until they were ready to hatch or just laid eggs, but now it's know that at least some lizards and snakes have placentas like mammals, though more primitive, and nourish their young internally.

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Roberta wrote:

coluber2001 wrote:
Krait (sea snake):

Roberta: Here had a little information on the banded sea snake that I posted on another thread:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The snakes encountered on Fiji are the banded sea snakes or kraits. They are the only oviparous sea snake which means that they come ashore to lay they eggs. Other sea snakes give live birth. This accounts for their occurance on land on the Survivor series. The snakes shown are Laticauda colubrina or Laticauda laticaudatus another similar species. This species is dangerously poisonous, but I saw a photo of a Phd student at the University of Florida holding one of these snakes, apparantly unconcerned about being bitten.

To those who haven't seen the current "Survivor" series, some banded sea snakes were crawling on Exile Island. They are a poisonous species, and that raised two questions: were the contestents aware that they were poisonous, and why were marine snakes on the land. The oviparity of these snakes answers the second question: they came ashore to lay their eggs. Here is a website of a graduate student herpetologist in Florida. She is handling a banded sea snake with apparent unconcern over its danger, because the head is free. Look on the upper left of the page for the picture. Laticauda colubrina

Coluber: I have a question. If the snakes we see on land are there for the sole purpose of laying eggs, does this mean that the only snakes we see on land are female? If so, do the males ever come on land?[/quote]

Your question piqued me to do a little research, and I came across this website of a partial abstract on the banded sea snake: banded sea snake.

The snakes spend about half their time in the water and on land, so females, males, and young spend time on land. They come ashore to digest their food (eels), mate, lay eggs, and slough their skin. On the last "Survivor" they showed a sea snake for a few seconds with blue eyes. This is called the "blue" stage of pre-shedding where the skin and eyes take on a blue cast. Snakes are especially crabby at this time because their eyesight is impeded.

It was also noted that the body temperature of the snakes remained very constant while on land.

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coluber2001 wrote:

Roberta wrote:
Thanks for that info, Coluber. I believe the people on Survivor have been informed that the snakes are venomous. One contestant killed one that was coming close.

Saw something interesting the other night about snake maternity. It is believed that a breed of python (maybe the rock python?) stays with and tends to her babies for several weeks after they're born. Never heard this about snakes before.

It's interesting that pythons are able to generate body heat to incubate their clutches of egg, which they coil around.

A lot is being learned about snakes and other reptiles. It used to be thought that snakes either retained their eggs until they were ready to hatch or just laid eggs, but now it's know that at least some lizards and snakes have placentas like mammals, though more primitive, and nourish their young internally.

Thanks for the info about the sea snakes, Coluber. I had no idea that they were on land that much.

As for the pythons, female pythons will warm themselves almost to the point of overheating. Then they return to their clutch of eggs and share the warmth. This was related to snakes that have their nests in caves, which are cold.

Amazing how much we don't know. I look forward to additional enlightenment.

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