Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

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dendrelaphis
Posts: 172
Joined: February 28th, 2014, 12:10 am

Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by dendrelaphis »

I have spent several vacations on the Santubong Peninsula, Sarawak, Borneo, with my family. Although our main activities were swimming and doing nothing, I have spent a fair amount of time in the rainforest looking for snakes. I have published the results in two papers so some of you may already have see many of these. Nevertheless, I thought I’d share these with you, instead of letting them fade away on my hard drive. I have found 32 species and have estimated (using species accumulation curves and model fitting) that 46 species inhabit this area. I hope that some of you will visit this area and find what other species are out there……
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Oligodon purpurascens
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Oligodon subcarinatus
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Oligodon octolineatus
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Liopeltis tricolor
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Xenoxhorphis maculatus
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Calamaria leucogaster
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Dendrelaphis caudolineatus
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Rhamphotyphlos braminus
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Asthenodipsas laevis
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Boiga cynodon
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Calamaria lumbricoidea
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Naja sumatrana
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Ophiophagus hannah
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Gonyosoma oxycephalum
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Python reticulatus
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Chysopelea paradisi
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Calliophis intestinalis
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Boiga dendrophila
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Dendrelaphis formosus
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Xenochrophis triaguligerum
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Tropidolaemus subannulatus
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Amphiesma sarawacense
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Ptyas fuscus
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Pseudorabdion longiceps
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Ahaetulla prasina
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Dendrelaphis pictus
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Xenopeltis unicolor
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Rhabdophis conspicilatus
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Ptyas carinatus
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Jeroen Speybroeck
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Re: Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by Jeroen Speybroeck »

Nice collection! Could you post the references to those papers, so I could dig them up?
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Chaitanya
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Re: Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by Chaitanya »

nice pics. Have you shot most of pics with a film camera?
dendrelaphis
Posts: 172
Joined: February 28th, 2014, 12:10 am

Re: Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by dendrelaphis »

Here's the references:

Van Rooijen, J. (2009): Estimating the snake species richness
of the Santubong Peninsula (Borneo) in two different
ways. Contributions to Zoology 78: 141-147.

Van Rooijen, J. (2012): Estimating the snake species richness of the Santubong
Peninsula (Borneo): a computer-simulation. Amphibia-Reptilia 33 (2012): 521-525

Van Rooijen J, Van Rooijen M. 2007. The landsnakes of the Santubong
Peninsula, Sarawak, Borneo: a preliminary list of
species with natural history notes. Russian Journal of Herpetology
14: 27-38.


I shot most pictures with a simple Canon, are they that bad? (-: Back then, I did not have a macro-lens nor a good flash yet. I made the pictures primarily for documention. My future pictures should be better.
yuesam
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Joined: October 13th, 2014, 11:13 am

Re: Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by yuesam »

So many awesome (and rare) snakes. Love the oligodons and calamaria. Wish I could have encountered more when I was in Borneo
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Ruxs
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Re: Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by Ruxs »

This is great! I would love to hear some of the stories behind these finds sometime. Especially jealous of the P. carinata, I always hoped to find one sleeping by night but never got lucky in that regard. How often have you herped around the higher altitudes of the area?
dendrelaphis
Posts: 172
Joined: February 28th, 2014, 12:10 am

Re: Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by dendrelaphis »

Thanks. I never went all the way to the summit. I judged it to be a bit too risky as you have to use slippery rope ladders and I was on my own. But I did climb to roughly 500 meters on several occasions. There are some wonderful spots although I did not find much there. To be honest, I guess there are better areas to look for snakes than Santubong. I felt that the snake density and species richness is not particulalrly high. But the combination of a good resort situated next to the rainforest and the close presence of many kilometers of wonderful trails made this place attractive to me., As a result, the snakes of Santubong more or less became my "project". But my next trip will be to Koh Chang Island, Thailand. I think not much is known about its herpetofauna so I'm looking forward to it.
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Very nice, thanks for sharing!

Why is the O. purpurascens banded? I only know them in ugly-dark grey. Was that a juvie?

And how far up did you go on your walks? All the way to the top at 600 meters? If so, did you find differences in species distribution at different levels?

Thanks again!

Hans
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Jeroen Speybroeck
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Re: Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by Jeroen Speybroeck »

dendrelaphis wrote:Here's the references
Great! Downloaded those I have access to. Dankjewel, Johan!

I don't have access to the Russian journal, though. Could you perhaps be so kind to send me a PDF (jeroenspeybroeck at hotmail dot com)?
dendrelaphis
Posts: 172
Joined: February 28th, 2014, 12:10 am

Re: Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by dendrelaphis »

Oligodon purpurascens actually exhibits a strong colour pattern dimorphism (if you're interested: Van Rooijen et al. (2011): COLOR PATTERN DIMORPHISM IN THE COLUBRID SNAKE Oligodon purpurascens (SCHLEGEL, 1837) (REPTILIA: SQUAMATA); Russian Journal of Herpetology 18: 215-220). One form is brown with narrow bands, the other usually red with broad bands. A huge difference. The juvenile in the picture represents the "red" form

See below a "red" specimen from Pulau Tioman:

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Interestingly though, in the Bornean population, the "red" form actually becomes brown as an adult. As a result, the two phenotypes are hard to distinguish in Bornean adults. But it is still visible if you know what to look for.
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
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Re: Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Well, I'll be a tarsier's uncle...all I ever see is them ugly ones! Thanks for the education; now I'm looking very much forward to my next Santubong visit!
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