Hot summer days have arrived in Kabini. During this time, animals are always on the move, looking out for shelter from the scorching sun. A number of members of the animal family, like snakes for instance, emerge in the night when weather is cooler, searching for prey.

One night as I was returning to my room after duty, I came across a non-venomous snake – the Common Kukri so called on account of an inverted ‘v’ shaped marking visible on its head. The species is very active by day and may continue being this way well past dusk.

A Common Kukri Snake

On most occasions, this snake is found in the termite mounds, crevices and so on. Many a time, this particular species has been spotted close to human habitation, occasionally searching for shelter. Such unfortunate specimens often end up being killed. This harmless snake chiefly feeds on eggs and small mammals. It may also feed on frogs and reptiles.

Another visitor I had that day was a scorpion which is more nocturnal and fossorial, finding shelter during the day in the relative cool of underground holes or the undersides of rocks, emerging only at night to hunt and feed.

A Scorpion

Scorpions exhibit photophobic behavior; they move away from light sources primarily to evade detection by their predators such as birds, lizards, mice, and rats.

Scorpions are opportunistic predators of small insects, although the larger kinds have been known to kill small lizards and mice. The neurotoxic venom which they carry is injected into their prey, which paralyzes or kills the latter so that it becomes edible.

After a few pictures of this shy creature were taken, it was released into a safer place for its own benefit as well as for the benefit of humans.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Predators, Reptiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.