Bali Reptile Rescue

longqi said:

Because kings virtually vanish after hatching and dont reappear until about 2metres I have a theory about hatchling mortality
Not easy to find good examples of wild king hatchies leaving the nest and spreading out to hunt

Expert breeders say that if they dont feed within 48hrs they eventually die
But where the mums make their nests it is rare to find other snakes
So the only prey items close at hand are the other hatchies
I think the first hatched, ie strongest, eat most of the others as they hatch

This is considered a totally off the wall idea by most other people

Wont know more until maybe next year when we can hopefully set up cameras on/in a nest

Its taken us a long time to crack these guys
Every trip teaches us more and we have barely scraped the surface yet

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That theory doesn't seem off the wall to me, but I do have a few screws lose in my head. It actually makes sense if you put some thought into it. You never know you might get a early indication when the eggs hatch. Maybe the egg count wont match the hatchling count. Either way im intrigued by you and your teams work so please keep me updated with any info your willing to divulge.


Regards, Patrick

Aussie family just moved to Bali last week

[h=5]"We have a cobra in the land next to us"
"Ok see you soon"
"Here is a photo of the cobra"
"That is actually a completely harmless snake called an oriental rat snake. Excellent rat catchers and great for the environment"
"Ok thank you for coming out"

Kids arrive home as we are leaving
"would you like to see our pet snake we caught.. it doesnt bite or anything"
I think I hurt his arm as one of the kids starts reaching into a box to lift out 2ft of very unhappy cobra

They had no idea it was a cobra because it didnt act like the ones on tv

I hooked it out of the box and it took about 5 minutes annoying it before it finally flared up and they believed me

It is quite common for Spitting Cobras to not bother extending their necks and putting up their hoods[/h]

^ Wowsers!

Just silly really
Family from NSW coast and kids thought they knew about snakes
Hopefully they will check out our id pages before picking any more up

Lucky for them that they decided to show you!

Its xmas

looking good
Looking better

Over the moon about these babies

First 7 Bali kings

Easily my favourite thread on this site. Keep posting Peter.
Can't wait for my next holiday to Bali
Hans

Allan said:

Easily my favourite thread on this site. Keep posting Peter.
Can't wait for my next holiday to Bali
Hans

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Funny day today
Went to relocate a 'cobra' that was really a rat snake
Phone call from home as I bagged it
"theres a little baby snake on the floor in the lounge"
7 baby king cobras hatched out now
About 80eggs to go and another queen and nest to relocate Monday/Tuesday
Hopefully about 50 kings to release same trip

Love baby kings. Good stuff mate

You will never see this many baby kings in one spot again
Just released 60
About 46 left to hatch

Finding a good release spot

This little mum is in bad nick so we've taken her home for some r&r



Some of you may recognise the young guy holding the king?

Dont look at the camera....... Please


Greg Amy and Martin did pretty well
But here is Eddy showing off a bit


2 kings
60 baby kings released
Not a bad couple of days

- - - Updated - - -

Text message 6.30am
"Weve got a cobra right outside our door"
Text message 6.45am
"Its ready to pounce how long before you get here?"
Text message 7am
"Are you coming or not?"
7.20am
"My kids cant go to school. Why wont you answer me?'
7.50am
"I thought you were supposed to reliable? Where are you?"

9am I finish a rescue miles away and go back to bike
Take phone out to ring gf
Read messages
Ring them
They are not happy
Me.. Can you send me your address please?
Them... You should have been here hours ago
Me.. Maybe if you had rung me I would have known you had a problem?
Them... Dont you know how to use texts?
Me... If your house is burning down do you send the Fire Brigade a text message???

Nice little cobra bagged and tagged in 5 minutes

200 metres from the fatality last week in Sanur
4metres 23.5kg

Jazz collected these kings
100% hatch rate in a very simple incubator






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gus11 said:

As fun as catching kings would be could you explain
why removing the wild eggs to incubators and it seems reducing hatching
success is considered beneficial? I understand locals may kill them
once they hatch, that happens with all snakes everywhere. Is this
program considered to have a longer term success rate than just leaving
them be? How many release locations can you have that aren't already
inhabited by kings? I'm not sure on this but I assume they will eat each
other?<br>
I know these questions come across as sounding negative but i am generally interested.

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Believe me we are still worried about what we had to do even though our egg success rate has been nearly 100% so far We had to move the kings and the eggs because otherwise they would be killed
Locals would have shot the mums and burnt the nests because in their opinion they were too close to human habitation
That would mean 100% mortality
Reason the kings make nests close to humans, makes sense if you understand conditions here
Poor sanitation means rats around villages<br>Rats attract snakes<br>Snakes attract king cobras<br>
In 2 valleys in West Bali kings were heavily hunted years ago
We have found no trace of kings in those valleys
[Its quite funny really<br>If we go spotting at night and see few other snakes we can be fairly sure there are kings around if the habitat is correct]
These valleys are full of other snakes together with great habitat
Access is restricted by the topography and lack of roads
That area is where the remaining babies that just hatched are going<br><br>Cannibalism doesnt appear to be as much of a problem as I thought it may be
<br>Wild kings definitely eat each other same as womas and black heads etc<br>But the babies we hatched appeared to have zero interest in each other as food

Bit of karma came back today

My favourite snake hook has visited 3 continents and many islands
Was called to a retic at a construction site
They actually stopped all work until we could get there to move it to safety
Huge kudos to them
Unfortunately it had major damage from an earth mover and I decided to put it to sleep
Closest implement was my snake hook
I brain killed it just like you do with fish
Worked very well
Rigid for about 2 seconds then relaxed totally

My snake hook has traveled extensively in the same bag for years with zero dramas
For some reason the bag zipper slipped a bit
Voila I get home and no snake hook

Almost as if it had decided that since it was used for saving snakes it had to leave because it had killed one??

These are gone now
Lounge feels empty without these inquisitive little darlings
99 so far released with only 9eggs left to hatch

This 2.5 metre king was reported to us a funny looking tree snake
Headed straight up into the rainforest canopy and vanished


- - - Updated - - -

Badly infected bite wound on a 20kg retic
Will have to open it up and drain it
Not looking forward to it

Ticks were all over the wound but not many anywhere else



retics and excavators dont mix

Shame when we have to move a snake and it spews up its feed

need a vet to hopefully comment on this
appears to be a dog bite that has healed on the surface
underneath feels mushy and full of liquid
Should I open it up and drain it??
retic spewed up a cat but is drinking and appears to be fine otherwise

longqi said:

need a vet to hopefully comment on this
appears to be a dog bite that has healed on the surface
underneath feels mushy and full of liquid
Should I open it up and drain it??
retic spewed up a cat but is drinking and appears to be fine otherwise

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Peter- I am not a vet, but I think I have a ide of what is going on here. Dog bites are a very traumatic and painful event. They leave large puncture marks, they cam even rip flesh. They have bacteria in there mouths. I would be willing to bet my left foot that there is a nasty infection under there. If you and your rescue group have the means to take it to a vet I would. As a last resort I would open up the infection clean it out make sure its enclosure is sterile. Administer antibiotics as recommended on there directions. I have a feeling if the infection isn't controlled it will probably be a goner. Again I am no vet, but this is what I would do in your situation.


By the way great work with the kings.

Regards ,Patrick

caliherp said:

Peter- I am not a vet, but I think I have a ide of what is going on here. Dog bites are a very traumatic and painful event. They leave large puncture marks, they cam even rip flesh. They have bacteria in there mouths. I would be willing to bet my left foot that there is a nasty infection under there. If you and your rescue group have the means to take it to a vet I would. As a last resort I would open up the infection clean it out make sure its enclosure is sterile. Administer antibiotics as recommended on there directions. I have a feeling if the infection isn't controlled it will probably be a goner. Again I am no vet, but this is what I would do in your situation.


By the way great work with the kings.

Regards ,Patrick

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Patrick

Zero access to a vet who will work on snakes for a reasonable fee

Slit it open early this morning before it got too warm and energetic
About 2 tablespoons of pus and yucky blood
Only antibiotics? we had is flamazine betadine and savlon
Cleaned it pretty well with 6% saline
Hopefully got all the junk out
Light coat of savlon and stitched it back up
Left 2 holes for any more pus to drain
Checked it tonight and no mushiness now
No lumps or immediate signs of more infection
Bad attitude all round so prognosis is good at this stage

Wont really know for a week or two

Fingers crossed for a good recovery

longqi said:

Light coat of savlon and stitched it back up
Left 2 holes for any more pus to drain

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I'm no vet, but I imagine the principle is the same as in humans - it's best to leave the abscess completely open in order to drain as much pus as possible. Stitches may not take in infected tissue anyway. Having said that you can see the wound & I can't, so good work & good luck.

Only stitched skin to skin
Looking ok so far
No signs of swelling or discharge

Gotta laugh some days
Did rescue
hot day
stop bike to get cold drink
away from bike about 2 minutes
Someone thought the bag looked good
I wonder if they looked inside
If they stuck their hand inside they would have found nothing but an angry spitter

longqi said:

Only stitched skin to skin

Gotta laugh some days
Did rescue
hot day
stop bike to get cold drink
away from bike about 2 minutes
Someone thought the bag looked good
I wonder if they looked inside
If they stuck their hand inside they would have found nothing but an angry spitter

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LMAO serves them right. I would love to see his face when he opened the bag.