Since my last vacation was 2 months ago and I won't be taking another until Thanksgiving, I thought I would torment myse-er I mean have some fun by imagining future vacations. If I'm being completely honest, I would most love to go to Japan again since I'm a massive nerd, but this is a reptile Amino so today I'll be talking about my dream herping destination, and the herps I would want to find!
So without further ado, the area of the world I would most love to herp in is southeast Asia, specifically, Malaysia!
There are so many beautiful herps in that area that I could never actually keep, given how advanced they are, but seeing them in the wild would be the next best thing!
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The first species that I would love to encounter, which you may be shocked to hear coming from a snake person, is a lizard. Specifically, the Olive tree skink, or dasia olivacea.
These are actually my favorite lizard; I love their striking green bellies! But these are arboreal lizards and so require a very tall enclosure in captivity - 4ft is considered a bare minimum, but 6ft of height is more commonly recommended.
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Another reptile that would be amazing to see in the wild is the genus of flying snakes, but more specifically the paradise flying snake, or chrysopelea paradisi.
These arboreal snakes are beautiful, and very neat! They primarily eat lizards and bats, but what's really interesting is why they are called flying snakes. When the snake reaches the end of a branch, it'll dangle off the end, launch itself off, and then glide to a nearby branch, using its flattened belly to create enough lift to "fly."
It would be awesome to see these guys in motion first-hand!
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Another herp that would be exciting to find is the Malayan water monitor, or varanus salvator.
I will it that my interest in these is mainly scientific. I think it's so cool how intelligent monitor lizards are! They can differentiate between humans, solve more complex puzzles than other reptiles, be trained, and more! It would be so interesting to observe their intelligence at work in the wild.
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And finally, of course, the main event, my favorite snake, the red-tailed green rat snake, or gonyosoma oxycephalum.
Image from Wikipedia
These snakes are so beautiful, it really is a shame they're such advanced snakes. They require very specific heat and very high humidity, have horrid temperaments, won't drink from standing water, and are almost always wild-caught. One interesting fact about these guys is that despite the fact that they are called red tailed green rat snakes, their tails are only red as juveniles:
As they reach adulthood, their tails become a greyish-purple color as seen below:
Comments (3)
Great work on this post! It’s been featured in Headlines, so here’s some coins for ya! :)
This is great!! I’m thinking abt planning a heeling trip to Madagascar in the future, but they’re having problems with disease currently so I’m gonna have to wait it out.