Xenopeltis unicolor Reinwardt 1827

Found this snake in the middle of the night when a few of us were driving back from a night sampling trip in the mangroves of Natunas island. Darren was at the wheel, it was around 1 am in the morning. All of us were exhausted after a whole day of sampling, I was at the back of the car, windows rolled down, just feeling the cool night breeze on my face, listening to the sounds of the forests by the side of the road. Sometimes we will see oil lamps lits in used Redbull cans placed on the sides of the lamp. Very nice streetlamps, just a small yellow flame flickering in the darkness. If I lifted my head up, I will see a blanket of stars covering the night sky. By just focussing on the stars, one gets this giddying sensation that its the stars zooming past me and I am the stationary one.

This was the last night of the 5 day trip. We had practically sampled most of the habitats on the island. Found lots of amazing stuff, lots of herptiles but no snake yet.

Well, back to the story. Suddenly Darren exclaimed, 'Snake!' and quickly pulled over. All of us felt this jolt of adrenaline rushing through and we quickly ran out of the car and raced back to the road. True enough, lying immobile on the road was this snake around a meter in length. The poor fella must have been ran over accidentally by a scooter for on its side has a wide gnash. Around the scene was this very strong smel of garlic. It was later that I realised the smell was emitted by the snake during times of distress. Well the smell continued to fill the room when we brought it back to our lodgings.

I was struck by the beauty of the snake upon closer examination. It has a slightly pointed head, built for burrowing in the fields and its entire body was covered with this beautiful iridiscent sheen. It has a beautiful common name, the sunbeam snake, but its latin name Xenopeltis unicolor does not do justice to the amazing display of colors the snake has.

This beautiful snake ranges from Southern China to South East Asia. It's of course a native to Singapore as well, though sadly we do not have as much sutitable open areas such as forest clearings and gardens for it to burrow in and hunt for frogs and other reptiles. Still I hope to be able to catch a glimpse of it in our own backyard.