Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know I've posted some of these shots before but I like them so here they are again. Hope you like them too!

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Randy Whittington

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Randy Whittington

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Randy Whittington

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Randy Whittington

WOW! Great looking animals!

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Randy Whittington

As always, totally awesome Randy! I like the egg pipping shot!
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Todd Hughes

Thanks Todd!
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Randy Whittington

Those are truly “Beauty” animals….
Mocquard’s will always be of special interest to me, even though I’ve never kept that variant.
Thanks for the pics, Randy….
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……….Old Guy Story Warning……..
Don’t continue if your cabin fever has reached suicidal levels. Reading more might push you over the edge!
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Long, long ago in a galaxy far away (Vietnam, 1968) a fellow Marine brought me a snake he had just killed. It was, in fact, a Beauty snake (and definitely not a “Radiated Rat Snake”. I had already collected and examined a few of Radiateds.) I was only 20 and had never seen such striking animal.
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I was torn between aw and regret that this animal had been killed.
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I preserved the animal, but the animal was lost months later when a rocket destroyed the place it was stored.
No picture was taken.
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Mocquard’s had been originally described from North Vietnam as Coluber Vaillanti Mocquard 1905. The type specimen is in Paris at the “Museum Nationale d’Histoire Natrelle”.
Anyway, we come back to present times and few modern authors will include this location in their range map, and, of course, I have no voucher.
The blue dot is the location where I examined this Rat Snake.
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Regards, Bill McGighan

Thanks Bill and thanks for posting that info. VERY interesting!! I wonder if it might have been a yunannensis or a mocquardi? You see any other interesting ratsnakes while you were there?

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Randy Whittington

I’m afraid that I examined many Radiated Rats, the one described Beauty Snake, and a couple (Ptyas korros), but no other Rats.
Gonysoma are found there, but I never saw one in the area that I was in.
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There were quite a few other herps (Ramphotyphlops, Enhydris, Oligodon, Python, Bungarus, Trimeresurus, etc. ), but all these others were common and expected.
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I had no reference materials (Smithsonian didn’t print Simon M Campden-Main’s “A Field Guide to the Snakes of South Vietnam” until 1969), so every snake found had to be approached as poisonous until I could examine for fangs.
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One bit of luck for me was when I found several Red-necked Keelbacks (Rhabdophis subminiatus}, and after determining they were rear fanged and harmless, I’d let them climb through my hands unrestricted and they remained docile. This was just me being young and foolish since, today, of course, we know that they have caused some morbidity.
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The neatest animal to me was a pencil thin Many-spotted Cat Snake ( Boiga multomaculata) that was placed in a cage with a large Mountain horned dragon (Acanthosaura). I watched them closely to make sure the lizard didn’t hurt the snake. By morning the lizard was just a huge lump in the snake!!!
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Regards, Bill McGighan

Oh.....
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Whether what I saw was E. t. yunnanensis or E. t. mocquardi, I really couldn’t say for sure after 40 years. I guess I’ll have to go back and look again!!!!!

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Regards, Bill McGighan

neat story Bill, too bad the place got shelled. i've always wanted to visit Thailand and Laos, you were pretty close.
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Todd Hughes

Every herper should hit a SE Asia country at least once. Every plant and animal is something new to a North American!!!
Put it on your bucket list, Todd.
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Regards, Bill McGighan

I need another bucket, lol!
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Todd Hughes