This little critter was found late into the pre-National Day Lim Chu Kang cleanup and of all places, right outside a staging point on the beach and before the mangrove proper. At the start of the cleanup, seeing some of the Cleanup volunteers heading into the mangrove behind the beach, I took the oppurtunity to tell them about keeping a good lookout for snakes especially the mangrove or shore pit viper. (I had read that there were pit vipers in the Lim Chu Kang mangroves though i had never seen one myself despite quite a few trips into this mangrove.)
It was only much later when the group was preparing to remove the collected trash that someone spotted the dark maroon snake coiled around a low branch on a small tree on the beach right near to where the supplies (trash bags, gloves etc.) had been kept.
Once its existence was known, the cleanup volunteers were informed to keep their distance from the tree so as not to invite an unfortunate defensive bite from the snake. The tiny snake, which could have been about 25cm long, hardly moved at all and I think it thought it was doing a good job blending in with the tree and minding its own business.
Best to let sleeping snakes lie and keep a respectful distance.
mangrove pit viper @ lim chu kang - 04Aug2012 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.
Read more about the cleanup :
The 37 volunteers cleared 83 trash bags containing 669kg of trash (not including bulky items which were not weighed).
http://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/pre-national-day-coastal-cleanup-2012/
http://www.purplemangrove.blogspot.sg/2012/08/iccs-pre-national-day-coastal-cleanup.html (in mandarin)
Best to let sleeping snakes lie and keep a respectful distance.
mangrove pit viper @ lim chu kang - 04Aug2012 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.
Read more about the cleanup :
The 37 volunteers cleared 83 trash bags containing 669kg of trash (not including bulky items which were not weighed).
http://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/pre-national-day-coastal-cleanup-2012/
http://www.purplemangrove.blogspot.sg/2012/08/iccs-pre-national-day-coastal-cleanup.html (in mandarin)
Read more about this snake :
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