The other day, on an evening walk at Agara Lake, an
eco-oasis in the concrete jungle of South East Bangalore, I was thrilled to see
a small snake, about 40 cm long, eating a lizard. Earlier, as an enthusiastic but ignorant wildlife lover, I may have done something stupid, but now, after attending the
awesome STORM (scientific training on reptile management) workshop, I did just
the right things.
First of all, I identified the snake as a juvenile,
non-venomous checkered keelback (Xenochrophis piscator) – for the sake of easy narration, let’s
assume the snake was male, and call him XP1. Secondly, I stayed far enough to
not disturb XP1 in any way, but only observed and photographed him (by zooming
in with my cheap phone camera, so as not to get too close).
XP1 ate the lizard he had hunted pretty fast. I’m not
posting the pics and a couple of short videos of his ingestion process, as they
may be a bit graphic for non-reptile lovers. Here is a pic of XP1 after he
enjoyed his meal
Then XP1 did something unexpected – he started going into
the space of people walking and kids playing, instead of heading back into the
thick undergrowth from which he had come. Should I guide him back to where he
would be safe and not panic humans into harming him? Do I even know where he
should go? The easiest thing would have been to pick him up by his tail, hold
the front of his body up with the help of a twig, and put him back into the grassy
area from which he had emerged. But due
to my lack of experience, I thought I’d better not handle him, lest I hurt him
(since he was quite small and young) or he regurgitates (and loses that well-earned
meal).
So I put a piece of a fallen branch in front of him over the
concrete pavement, and to my delight, he climbed over it and voluntarily went
back into the grassy undergrowth, next to the footpath.
Hope I get to see XP1 again when he is bigger.
