Shane:

There's not a lot out there.

With respect to occurrence in South Korea, Schulz states “The Korean distribution was only recently discovered (Szyndlar 1985). All present records come from the southwestern part of the country (meaning North Korea), thus it can be assumed that the range extends into South Korea as well”. The distribution map has two records right on the northwest side of the DMZ. As far as I know no one is breeding (or even keeping) davidi. Schulz has a picture of one in his monograph. This specimen was picked up in a chinese food market. Schulz quotes Helfenberger (who is an associate of his) that it “is a very agile snake that can bite strongly if threatened”. There isn’t very much natural history info available. Among the food items found in stomach contents were small mammals, birds, eggs, lizards, frogs and at least one snake (elaphe dione). Habitat info indicates a “vertical distribution between 100 and 1000 meters above sea level”. There are some records indicating proximity with water (streams and dry canal beds) in summer months could be important. Older sources like Pope say preferences are for “open river valleys at moderate altitude”. “Boulenger notes a rocky canyon as a locale”. “Sowerby stated that E. davidi inhabits the same biotopes as E. dione”.

That’s about all the info I’ve ever seen.

Best regards
John

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]