A Juvenile Banded Racer

I was happily snoring away in bed the next morning. The time is presumed to be about 8.30 am. Just about then I was woken up by my dad, who was shouting out to me saying that the neighbour living behind had caught a snake from his backyard. I immediately put on my glasses and ran for the camera. After doing so I ran down the stairs and out to the sitout. There, standng on the pale white floor was my neighbour, and infront of him was a small dark snake... A Common Krait! I was surprised that there could still be baby Common Kraits when its not even the time of mating. I asked my neighbour to move it to the gravel, so that it would give a more 'natural' look. Staying about a metre away from it, I took a few shots of it slithering around.

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I noticed it flattening its neck very often. This wasn't an act given from the Common Krait. I was then sure that this wasn't a Common Krait. I remembered seeing a similar looking snake in the Snake Book that I had borrowed recently. After recalling what I saw in the book, I finally managed to identify it. The Juvenile form of the Banded Racer. Alas, the mystery has been solved.

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I kept trying to photograph the snake with its tongue flipping out. After a series of shots, I managed to get a few good photographs of its tongue out. Here's one of them.

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As I slowly moved and photographed this beautiful snake, I noticed it trying to dig into the gravel. It could be a seme-fossorial species, but they are also said to largely inhabit rat holes.

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Anyway, despite having told my parents and my sister that this was a non-venomous snake, they were still convinced that it was a highly venomous Common Krait. They kept warning me not to go to close and that we would have to kill it as soon as possible. But I just could not give in to them. Since they were leaving within a few minutes to the church, I decided to release it once they had left. I could not release it anywhere near, so I got it into a bucket and made it a suitable habitat by adding some gravel, coconut shells and husks as shelter and some leaf litter. I took a shot of it coiled up at one side of the bucket.

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After consulting my grandpa, I got the bucket with the snake and headed towards the scrubland area about a kilometre away from my house. Hardly any people end up visiting that area, so the snake should be safe, and so will the people. As I slowly released it, it flicked out its tongue a few times, and after sensing freedom, it made a dash for the undergrowth. Oh my, so thats why they call these snakes 'Racers'. Only then did I realize how fast it was. Even a human child would not be able to compete with such a fast snake in such an area. I was really intrigued by this particular snake due to its ability. I had then decided that this was indeed one of the most spectacular snakes I've seen so far. Here's the awesome photograph that I took of it as it dashed into the undergrowth.

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This day was just too good. I would have been happy even if I didn't spot a single creatures for the next few days. An Awesome Snake, with an Awesome ability. The Banded Racer. A Juvenile.