PAPUA NEW GUINEA SNAKEBITE PROJECT
HEROPA

Up for 07:00 but with various task to accomplish before we went into the field, we did not achieve the early start we had planned. Hayward was waiting with two of the four boys he had selected, Albert and Joseph, also waiting for us. Two more, Ben and Terry, on the road ahead also waiting for us.

My team (l-r): Joseph, Ben, Terry, Owen (Snakebite Clinic), Albert and Hayward (driver)

We set off for Heropa mini-estate east of Popondetta. Heropa is where, in 2006, I saw six New Guinea brownsnakes (Pseudonaja textilis) and captured three of them. I had only gone to this mini-estate then because the only other brownsnake from Oro had been killed in a mission hospital on the main road adjacent to the location and when I heard about blacksnakes*" in this mini-estate I put two and two together. Unlike Papuan taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus canni) which seems to be active early in the morning, my experience with brownsnakes in PNG is that they are active around mid-morning, my specimens turning up between 11:00 and 12:30.

* New Guinea brownsnakes are often black in colour.

We searched the mini-estate and found many interesting lizards and frogs, but no snakes, not even a shed skin.The boys were excited by the large numebr of rats we encountered, many of which were chased and killed, gutpela kai (good eating) being the excuse.

Joseph (l) and Albert (r) attack a windrow of palm fronds	Joseph with a prized and apparently delicious rat

Click on any image to enlarge it
Click next page below for page 2