Central Province
Edevu, Brown River
(first week)

There are two routes to walk to Edevu main village. The quick route is along the road we drove in on but that is less interesting, especially at night. The other route is cross-country through the bush, but that involves at least ten river crossings. One evening we took that route and immediately captured a juvenile Common ground snake (Stegonotus parvus) and then directly after that a very large (1.0+) Slatey-grey snake (Stegonotus cucullatus).

On the way back we caught a Brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis) and, as we neared camp, juvenile Slatey-grey snake (Stegonotus cucullatus). We also met with a very aggressive male tarantula which tried to bite me as I caught it.

Common ground snake Stegonotus parvus
Slatey-grey snake adult Stegonotus cucullatus
Mark & Jasper admire (and try to avoid getting bitten by) the Slatey-grey snake, Stegonotus cucullatus
Brown treesnake Boiga irregularis
Slatey-grey snake juvenile Stegonotus cucullatus

All snakes were scale-counted, photographed and sampled for DNA by extraction of caudal blood.

Jasper assists as Mark takes blood from the caudal vein of a Slatey-grey snake, Stegonotus cucullatus