captain’s wood snake

We discovered this snake from under the ground while digging, the same time when this species was being named. That is, it was not known that such a species existed, taxonomically. It was in 2007 that we first found it, and it was the same year that David Gower and Jasmin Winkler from the Natural History Museum, London, published about the new species in a scientific journal.

Now, that may sound like that this is a very rare snake. No! Though this snake is endemic [native and confined to a region] to the low altitudes of the southwest Western Ghats region, it is common locally and may be of “least concern”. However, the reason that it didn’t even have a name of its own until recent, should be of a “grave concern”. It means that zoological research in the country may not have gained much momentum, at least like it was in the british days. Or why did this local species need the british community once again, to find it, study it, and name it properly?

There are obviously many more species to be discovered, named and studied. Such a process can eventually help in conservation of that particular species, and also the natural balance of the environment.

xylophis captaini

A few months after we found it out, we had posted an article on this snake, which was unidentified then [link: nature, bounded and bonded]. Since we had found the snake on 2 different days, both times while digging in the garden, we had mentioned that it might be a common but rarely observed snake.

xylophis captaini snake

“captain’s wood snake”
There is another interesting twist to the story. When we found the snake, we had cross checked books and online articles on snakes. None of those sources talked about this rarely studied group. Then we emailed the photographs to Ashok Captain, whose contributions to the knowledge of Indian snakes are remarkable. Probably the email never reached him, and we didn’t have a chance to know further about the snake. Recently we emailed the snake photographs to some other zoologists and specialists and one of them, Dr. K. P. Dinesh of Zoological Survey of India, correctly identified the family of the snake as Xylophis. Once the family was found, a google search led me to the recent paper by David Gower, which zoomed in on the species we had! Now, the funny side of the story is that, this snake was named by the authors as xylophis captaini or the captain’s wood snake, in recognition of the contributions by Ashok Captain!!

xylophis captaini

The captain’s wood snake, often burrows under loose or moist earth. It is a great jumper too. Apart from these observations, we found that it plays dead to avoid any attention, as a strategy for survival! In our previous articles we had talked about the signature spiders and the red whiskered bulbuls feigning death as a survival technique. Nature and the life it holds, are far intelligent, impressive, and exciting than we think 🙂

xylophis captaini snake

Date: Dec 2007
Location: @ home, Kottayam, Kerala, India
Camera: Nikon D80 + Tamron SP AF90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Lens

Reference:
Gower, D.J. and J.D. Winkler, 2007: Taxonomy of The Indian snake Xylophis Beddome (Serpentes: Caenophidia), with description of a new species. Hamadryad, 31, 2, 315-329 [link: pdf].

31 Responses

  1. Akhil muraleedharan says:

    Sir,
    I am so thankful for the information u shared on the captain wood snake because i found one at my garden and got confused that it may be a poisonous baby snake. But now i am glad to see such a creature with this much information. 😊😊😊thanks again…

  2. jo says:

    hey can any one tell me all the details of this snake …or share any link ……i just need to know how long it will grow and whether it a omnivorous or any other ..and how it will reproduce their young ones …please its required for my project ……..any one help me please

  3. docslovenature says:

    Thank you for this informative page…..i hated snakes when i was a kid and tried to kill anything which looked like a snake and which is ‘killable’! for me those days…i ve murdered this beautiful creature more than a couple of times while i was at school…myself from a town near the western ghats in kollam district have came across this species multiple times…recently i ve grown an interest in knowing more about snakes after i joined med school and graduated as a medical doctor…..i happened to observe this snake under a torch light ,one rainy night,in my backyard and was surprised that it had split tongues protruding at times confirming its identity as a snake species…the other time before this incident i thought it could be a caecilian but now i know its a harmless snake…congratz for your efforts to be in harmony with the nature,dear rocksea

  4. unnikrishnan says:

    Thank you….

  5. unnikrishnan says:

    Can you provide me the details of the place where you found the snake..? I often come across such a species at Pampady area of Kottayam District. I got one specimen from Ramapuram area also. Locally the species is known as KARIKILA THAPPI. [ At Pampady area]

  6. റോക്സീ,

    ഈ പാമ്പിനെ കണ്ടിട്ടു് ഇരുതലമൂരിയാണെന്നു് തോന്നുന്നു. അതിന്റെ തലയറ്റവും വാലറ്റവും ഏറെക്കുറെ ഒരേപോലിരിക്കും. കുമരകത്തിനടുത്ത ചെങ്ങളത്തില്‍ എന്റെ അമ്മവീട്ടിലെ കുളിമുറിയില്‍ ഇവന്‍ കടന്നുവരാറുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. അവിടം പൊതുവേ ഒരു നനഞ്ഞ പ്രദേശമാണു്. പലയിനം പാമ്പുകളെ അവിടെ കണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നു.

    വലിപ്പം കുറഞ്ഞ മൂന്നുപാമ്പുകളെ എനിക്കു പരിചയമുണ്ടു്. തവിട്ട, ഇരുതലമൂരി, ചെവിപ്പാമ്പു് എന്നിവ. ചെവിപ്പാമ്പിനു് വിരയുടെ വലിപ്പമേയുള്ളൂ. ഇരുതലമൂരിയേക്കാള്‍ വളരെ ചെറുതു്. ഇവ രണ്ടിനേയുംകാള്‍ വലിപ്പമുണ്ടു്, തവിട്ടയ്ക്കു്. തവിട്ട വിഷമുള്ളതാണെന്നു് കേട്ടിരിക്കുന്നു. അണലിവര്‍ഗ്ഗത്തിലെ ചുരുട്ട ഇനത്തില്‍ പെട്ടതാണത്രേ! മറ്റേതു് രണ്ടും സാധുക്കള്‍.

    ഇതുകൂടാതെ സര്‍പ്പം എന്നുവിളിക്കുന്ന സ്വര്‍ണ്ണനിറത്തിലുള്ള പാമ്പിനെ കുറിച്ചു് അമ്മ പറഞ്ഞറിയാം. ഞാന്‍ കണ്ടിട്ടില്ല. അമ്മയുടെ അമ്മവീട്ടിലെ കിണറ്റില്‍ സര്‍പ്പമുണ്ടായിരുന്നത്രേ. ഈ കിണര്‍ തേകണമെങ്കില്‍ ആദ്യം സര്‍പ്പത്തെ ഒരു കുട്ടയിലാക്കി സുരക്ഷിതമായി മുകളിലെത്തിക്കണം. അല്ലെങ്കില്‍ വെള്ളം പറ്റില്ല എന്നാണു് അമ്മ പറയുന്നതു്. അമ്മയുടെ കുട്ടിക്കാലത്തു് വെള്ളം തേകിയിരുന്നതു് അങ്ങനെയായിരുന്നത്രേ. അതല്ലാതെ മോട്ടര്‍ വച്ചാല്‍ പോലും പറ്റില്ലെന്നും. കുട്ടിക്കാലത്തു് തന്നെ കൊട്ടാരത്തില്‍ ശങ്കുണ്ണിയുടെ ഐതിഹ്യമാല വായിച്ചിരുന്നതിനാല്‍ ഈ കഥയില്‍ എനിക്കു് അത്ഭുതമൊന്നും തോന്നിയിരുന്നില്ല എന്നുമാത്രം.

    • rocksea says:

      ഹലോ സെബിന്‍, ഇരുതലമൂരി ഒരു പാമ്പേയല്ല. അതു സീസിലിയന്‍ (caecilian) എന്ന വര്‍ഗത്തില്‍പ്പെട്ട ഒരു പാവം ഉഭയജീവി (amphibian) ആണ്. à´ˆ പടത്തിലുള്ളത് ക്യാപ്‍റ്റന്റെ മരപ്പാമ്പ് (captain’s wood snake) തന്നെ. à´ˆ വര്‍ഗ്ഗത്തെ കണ്ടുപിടിച്ച ഡോ.ഗോവര്‍ തന്നെ അതു സ്ഥിരീകരിച്ചിരുന്നു.

      സെബിന്റെ പാമ്പുകഥകള്‍ കേള്‍ക്കാന്‍ നല്ല രസം 🙂 തവിട്ടയുടെയും ചെവിപ്പാമ്പിന്റെയും ആംഗലേയം എനിക്കറിയില്ല, പക്ഷേ കണ്ടിട്ടു കാണും.

  7. bindu says:

    That’s such a cute little snake! Great photos. It’s a little suspicious that the snake was named after Captain after you sent him the pictures …

  8. Vinay Bhat says:

    I am really happy with your interest on snakes..

  9. Elaine- says:

    what a teensy WEENSY snake, looks like a worm until the close up of it’s teensy weensy face lol i loved the story that went with it, very interesting how you tracked down the name! i used to love snakes when i was a little girl, but never found too many, i was not afraid back then, but i would be now! strange how that works 😉

    • rocksea says:

      yes it is a teeny weeny snake, at the first sight we were also bit confused to see such a small snake. You said you were not afraid of snakes when you were young. Probably the fear was instilled by others. I guess it is the same with most of us 🙂

  10. eeeek!! After spiders now you’re behind the snakes brother? Surely Steve Irwin must be one among your favourites.. I hope you’re not like that Bear Grylls though.. 😉

    You better stay in Italy, away from our Karimoorkhan and Rajavembala friends… I dont fancy them much, no!

    • rocksea says:

      Oyy scorpio, what about scorpions next time? Any scope in Ireland? Have you seen any snakes since your stay over there?

      Btw, I had tried to comment on your recent post a few times, but failed. Please check it!

      • Hey, Ireland is a country without snakes, you didn’t hear that? The patron of this country St. Patrick apparently drove out all the snakes from Ireland a few centuries back, apparently. Anyway I’m yet to see one here 🙂

        Thanks for pointing out the bug in my comment form, I’ve been pinged about that by a couple of friends. I’ll check it out soon. Thanks 🙂

  11. Abhilash says:

    Roxy thanks for the comments on the thiruvathira post. I appreciate your comments. I thought it would appear as a harrasement on women and they will burst with a feminist attitude. But, none of them replied.

    🙂 I have ammended the post to serve eqality on genders. The purpose was to introduce importance of exercise.

    Opposing was to make them respond…

  12. Anwn says:

    That’s an awesome article. I love snakes. Period. There is more to be found in our backyards, I am sure.

  13. sandeep says:

    snakes & elephants are the two animals i fear most. still remember the day in pappinisseri snake park where i watched so many of the huge snakes at such proximity!

    gr8 effort in identifying a rare species. at this space, i am sure we’ll also have a roxy’s wood snake 🙂

  14. Abhilash says:

    Hey does this snake bite?

  15. Abhilash says:

    appears cute until it bite…

    I lve snakes; at zoo… 🙂

  16. Cuckoo says:

    See the magic of follow up ! 🙂

    Gravatar ? Sure, will do one of these days.

  17. Mridula says:

    Oh god you held it!

  18. Cuckoo says:

    Oh my God ! Whose hand is that ? Roxy, don’t tell me it’s yours. I am so scared of even earthworms, let alone snakes.

    But seriously, it’s strange that till recent it was not named and researched.

    P.S.- Now it would be fun to read all comments after you’ve fixed that plugin. 🙂

    • rocksea says:

      Of course my hand 🙂 Hopefully your fear of snakes will vanish and a love for them will appear in your heart, after reading and seeing more and more snakes in our articles 😉

      Yes, as you said, it is strange that it was not named and researched until now.

      >> Now that I have added the comment follow-up, you can connect a gravatar image to your gmail id. This lets you have your own avatar whenever you comment on a gravatar enabled (like wordpress) website 😀

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