April 20 2017, Emily Riddles and Cassidy Hampton were arrived in airport in Philippines, they went to the province of Isabella in search for the new species of snake, they focused on one particular new species of snake that they wanted to find, the Luzon Blue Krait (Bungarus luzonensis). Their first stop will be in Northern Sierra Madre National Park, which is located in the eastern part of Isabella, they will be joined by a Filipina snake expert named Hannah Sanchez (21) for their expedition to find the elusive Luzon Blue Krait as they explored the forested area.
"Let's make a careful search and watched our steps." Hannah said.
Emily and Cassidy were nodded as they continued to search in the middle of the forests.
"Snake!" Hannah said as she spotted a snake crawling on the forest floor.
The trio carefully approached the snake.
"Oh my gosh, it's a Philippine Krait (Bungarus philippinensis)!" Hannah said as the trio draw their respective snake tongs to handle a highly venomous snake.
"This species is mostly a nocturnal terrestrial species feeding on rodents, lizards and other snakes." Hannah said.
The trio measured the size of the snake very carefully.
"6 feet 7 inches long." Emily said.
The trio counting the dorsal scales, ventral scales and subcaudal scales.
"31 dorsal scales 172 ventral scales and 64 subcaudal scales," Cassidy said.
"What are their geographical ranges and habitats of this new species?" Emily asked.
"This is species is found in north and central Luzon, eastern Visayas and northern Mindanao." Hannah explained. "It primarily inhabits forests, mountains and ravines."
"One of the most interesting features of the Philippine Krait is that it is a red-headed snake with blue, white and yellow broad bands all the way down to its tail. Its belly is plain white." Emily said. "And its venom is both neurotoxic and cardiotoxic and also can cause lock-in syndrome or pseudocoma."
"Yes, that's why this new species of krait is deadly." Hannah said.
"Fascinating, but we are here to find the Luzon Blue Krait." Cassidy said.
"Yes, but this species is pretty rare to find." Hannah said.
"Do you have any ideas to where we can find this species?" Emily asked.
"I heard that the Luzon Blue Krait is a very elusive snake, so our chances of finding it are very slim." Hannah said. "We will have to search carefully.
"This Philippine Krait is a good sign, but need to be careful, we don't want to end up what happened to 32-year-old American Herpetologists, Dr. Jim Hyde back on August 10, 2001, who was exploring in Myanmar to find new snake species, got bitten by a Malayan Blue Krait while attempting to grabbing the snake by the head in bag, often mistaken it for wolf snake, then he died 30 hours after that bite." Emily said.
"That's terrible, I can't believe how a herpetologist like Dr. Hyde can be so careless." Cassidy said.
"He should have known better than to grab a snake by its head, especially a highly venomous one." Emily said.
"One of the local guides who were local snake herpers, have managed to captured the snake and put it on the bag, think that is was a non-venomous Wolf snake of Lycodon genus by mistake." Emily said.
"That poor guy probably thought that it was a harmless snake." Cassidy said.
"But in reality, it was a Malayan Blue Krait, one of the most venomous snakes in the world." Emily said.
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Emily Riddles: American Snake Master
RandomEmily Riddles is a 21-year-old wildlife photographer and herpetlogist from Phoenix, Arizona. She is a well-known snake expert who travel around the world to find, document and photographed all kinds of snakes, both venomous and non-venomous.
