18 Sept, 2008

Another successful night hunter is a pitviper, the bulge in its body indicating a recent meal.

The weather was fine again today in my part of Thailand and I spent the afternoon strolling through Thong Pha Phoom National Park examining bushes and burrows in the hope of finding another snake, or at least some interesting insect life.

I stopped to see if I could find the white-lipped pitviper (Trimeresurus albolabris albolabris) that I had filmed yesterday, and sure enough it was just about 2m (6.5ft) away from where I had filmed it.

Today, however, it had a very large bulge in its body, indicating that it had eaten something quite large last night. I couldn't resist getting a little bit more film to show this bulge.

After a bit of exploring, I resolved to drive up to the top of the park and visit a waterfall. On my way there I was negotiating one of many tight corners when I saw a large snake on the side of the road. I knew at a glance that it was one of two very active species and therefore was almost certainly dead, since it didn't move as I drove past. Moreover, I reversed right back to it and there was still no sign of life.

I jumped out of the car and moved towards the snake and had just confirmed in my mind that it was a king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) when it lifted its head up, flicked its tongue a few times and shot off into the forest.

I was furious with myself for not being more careful, but as if that wasn't enough, when I went up to the spot where it had been, I found that it was either eating or at least investigating the carcass of a Pope's pitviper (Trimeresurus popeiorum).

It was clear that the king cobra had not killed the pitviper as the flesh on the front half of the body had been eaten away, leaving just the skeleton.

This must have been the work of an animal with very fine nibbling teeth – I suspect a mongoose. The carcass was still quite fresh and must have been killed the night before, or early that morning. There was still an open area of flesh that was attracting several wasps and even a butterfly.

Still livid with myself for having perhaps missed the chance of recording a king cobra scavenging a carcass, I set up a few metres away and waited for an hour in the hope that it would come back, but it didn't.

By this time the best of the afternoon light was gone and I was no longer in the mood for waterfalls, so I explored the roadside banks nearby and found several tarantula burrows (Haplopelma minax). The occupants were deep inside and there was no sign of them coming out, so I resolved to come back after dark to see if there was any tarantula action.

At about 8pm I headed back into the park and found a tarantula on the earth bank just outside its burrow.

It wasn't a particularly large one, but probably big enough to give most people a bit of a fright. This species is notoriously aggressive and will bite readily – a behaviour no doubt evolved in response to the fact that it is hunted for food in many parts of south-east Asia. The bite, though painful, is not life-threatening.

This individual made several short dashes away from its burrow, presumably in response to having heard or seen something, but always came back with nothing to show.

While I was filming, a few drops of rain fell on the wet leaves around me, making quite a noise, and I wondered if the spider was being fooled by the noise.

In the end it got into a tussle with something in the plants close to its burrow and then made a dash back and disappeared into its burrow.

Thong Pha Phoom National Park is home to tigers, bears and elephants, all of which are active at night, so I arranged with some friends that if I wasn’t back by 11pm they would contact the park rangers and come looking for me. Although I wanted to continue filming, I had to give it up at 10:30pm and return to base.

– by Darryl Sweetland, Earth-Touch crew © Earth-Touch

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