PAPUA NEW GUINEA SNAKEBITE PROJECT
A PLETHORA OF ELAPIDS

Dave and Simon were out doing training at a health centre and when they returned I when I went upstairs for dinner only to discover two more snakes they had picked up from the clinic, dropped off by someone who found them in his yard in Waigani, Port Moresby. These little snakes are also what one would term "lesser elapids" ie. venomous snakes which are not considered "medically important" like taipan, balcksnakes, brownsnakes, small-eyed snakes or death adders.

They were a pair of Brown headed snakes (Furina tristis) a species confined to the southern coastal lowlands of Central and Western Provinces, and northern Australia. Inoffensive they were not difficult to photograph when I went back downstairs after dinner.

Brown-headed snake, Furina tristis

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