Oreocryptophis porphyracea kawakamii is a subspecies endemic to Taiwan. To quote from my own website: "The Taiwanese subspecies O. p. kawakamii inhabits humid forests or farmland where it preys mainly on mice. Females produce about 3 eggs of approximately 5 x 1.7 cm per clutch in summer or spring. Hatchlings measure about 33 cm in total length." O. p. kawakamii is also less mountain-bound than the other ssp. and can often be found at elevations close to sea level. They're on the move in spring and fall, but seem to totally disappear from the surface in the hot summer months. (For you etymology junkies out there: kawakamii was chosen in honor of Japanese botanist Takiya Kawakami (1871-1915), during the Japanese occupation director of the National Taiwan Museum from 1910-1915.)
Like many of the other banded subspecies, O. p. kawakamii is at its most beautiful during its first year. After that, the black splotches and bands fade. This one's a four month old specimen, a prop for my school talks; I received it from the Herp Rescue Center at the Taipei Zoo, where it was delivered by the fire brigade who in turn had removed it from somebody's living room where it had strayed.
Last Saturday was very warm and sunny, so we decided to take "Bean" (my kids picked the name for the black splotches) over to a friend's house for a photo shoot. My friend Yang-sheng Chen is a professional nature photographer, and he took all but two of these shots. As a photography greenhorn, I was fascinated by the way he managed to get these sharp and quite nicely composed pix out of the constantly moving animal, while controlling a huge triple-flash rig with a 100mm macro lens and shooting at f/16. Talk about a steady hand!
REPOST: Taiwan Red Bamboo (O. p. kawakamii)
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Re: REPOST: Taiwan Red Bamboo (O. p. kawakamii)
beautiful snake!