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The Forsten’s Catsnake is a giant among catsnakes. At at whooping 91 inches maximum recorded length it is certainly the largest of all the catsnakes in India. Catsnakes are strange looking snakes. As I thumbed through Whitaker and Captain’s book Snakes of India I noticed that all of them have those strange looking eyes that probably give them their family name.

The first catsnake I ever saw was the Common Catsnake. It was at the Pune snake park over seventeen years ago and I had no camera at the time to photograph it. My second encounter with catsnakes happened when I visited the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station three years ago. This was a Beddome’s catsnake (or Ceylon catsnake since they are virtually indistinguishable from each other) and since I did have my camera I took some pictures of it.

Unfortuanately I did not know much about photography at all at the time and when I look at the same photos today I have to admit I took some pretty lousy shots of it! About a year ago I would find my third species of catsnake and this time I would be much better prepared. Armed with a 100 mm macro lens and some slick photography techniques I went in much more confident for the shoot and came out with some pretty pleasing results!

Actually this time I had two models for the shoot. Both were specimens rescued by a forest department snake rescuer and were being held in a small snake pit at Cotigao wildlife sanctuary. The rescuer told me they were supposed to be released back into the forest soon. I was lucky they still had them on that day.

I was also lucky that my ex-student and now snake handling buddy Zeev Ginsberg was with me that day. While he handled the snake I took my shots. Macro lenses can teach you so much just by letting you see so much more detail than the naked eye.

Here’s some things that the lens can’t tell you though:

Catsnakes have a slim and laterally flattened body (that isn’t surprising since they live in trees!)
Catsnakes are nocturnal (not surprising either considering the strange looking ‘cat eyes’ it has!
Snakes of India mentions that these large snakes will feed on lizards, birds, bird eggs, bats, other small mammals and sometimes even other snakes!