Non-venomous
‘If you’re gonna get rid of your fear of snakes you’re gonna have to get bitten someday.’ I explained to Shippo. He was an eighteen year old lanky lad from my own village in Parra, and he wanted to learn how to rescue snakes.
I had agreed to teach him how to handle non-venomous snakes, and the snake he was supposed to handle was a young Banded Racer. The snake might have been only about ten to twelve inches long but it was a plucky little thing and I could tell Shippo was pretty nervous about holding it. Right now I was holding the snake’s tail in one hand, while I balanced my camera in the other.
After years of working with an ‘idiot proof’ cyber shot I had finally decided to switch to a professional Canon Digital SLR. My lens was a regular 18-55, which suited me fine, considering my reptilian subjects were never more than a few feet away from me!
‘Now hold it, and no matter what happens don’t let go, or we’ll never catch it again.’ I ordered Shippo. He was nervous but he still held the snake which was jumping and thrashing about like a live wire. ‘Support the body, with both hands.’ I shouted as I clicked away with my DSLR. The wonders of digital technology allowed me to click photographs non-stop for free. I didn’t need to be a great photographer to get great photographs. I just needed to click enough. Some of them would turn out excellent by default!
Satisfied that I had enough pictures of the complete snake I decided to try for a few close-ups. Now I didn’t have a macro lens for that but I was prepared with four macro filters (basically a magnifying glass). I unscrewed the UV filter from the main lens and screwed on one of the macro filters, feeling very professional as I did so!
At that point Shippo uttered a sudden yelp. The little snake, possibly a little agitated at not being able to break free from Shippo’s grasp, had decided that there were other ways of persuading him to let it go! The snake was chewing his finger with rigor. I wasted no time. But instead of helping him I clicked away gleefully with my camera! A bite from a non-venomous snake that small is not unlike the few pinpricks you might get from the thorns handling a rose plant. When the snake eased off Shippo’s finger tiny beads of blood materialized out of the bite area. The wound would heal fast. In four days Shippo wouldn’t even remember which hand it was that he got bitten.
Here are a few interesting facts about this beautiful snake
- The black and white crossbars that are so conspicuous on baby Banded Racers, fade away as the snake grows into an adult. As an adult the Racer is a glossy brown. Alarmed, this snake erects the forebody and flattens the body behind the neck mistaking it very often for a cobra.
- Banded Racers are supposed to be diurnal (active in the day). I imagine they are not so common though since I’ve only rescued two in Goa so far. One was an adult I rescued several years ago. The other is the baby you see in the photograph.
- Young Racers will feed on insects and frogs. Adults eat field mice, rats and amphibians.
- Banded racers are oviparous (egg layers) with small clutches of eggs (2-6 eggs laid at a time)
