A Surprising Invitation

Went to Bukit Timah one early morning along with my usual friend. After stuffing our bags into the lockers, we headed straight for the reserve. My instincts told me to look behind the giant book since that was where we last spotted the Malayan Whip Snake. I moved in and I was suddenly forced to jump back at lightning speed. If it wasn't for a fraction of a second, I would have been bitten by a Wagler's Pit-Viper.

This juvenile Wagler's Pit-Viper was resting on a plant very close to the book. It was the second time spotting this snake here in Bukit Timah, and both happened to be juveniles. I immediately snapped a few shots as it slowly moved its head to the other side.

I love this shot, especially when the background is a dark green.

As we knew that the snake was nocturnal and rarely moves about during the day, we decided to climb up the hill and come back to take more shots. Within an hour we were back, shooting the viper. This time, I tried to focus on shotting different parts of the snake. Here's the underside of its head.

The tail of the viper firmly holding on to the plant.

A side shot of the head, surprisingly with an ant on its neck.

This was the best shot I had of the viper, with its tongue out. I tried this for several times but it appeared that the viper sticks its tongue out only when I move away from it.

Anyway to end of, here are a few more shots of the snake... The last one in here is probably the best I have. I have used one of my face-to-face shots as the blog picture on the top.