Pseudechis papuanus

I´ll get some P.papuanus the next days. Does somebody has some experience with this species ?!

regards,

Mario

I had a male P. papuanus. for a few years. Never could find a female and I recently sold him. What do you need to know?

Oh nothing special. I just wanted to know if somebody made some interesting experience with this species. Was you´re animal calm ?! I´ll hope they getting more calm after a few month in captivity.

I got mine on 10/26/02, and had him up until about a year ago. He never did calm down, but he wasn't that bad to begin with. He was like most PNG elapids. Very fast, but quick to get out of your away, unless cornered. If you hooked him slowly and calming, he would ride the hook fairly well, but once you spook him, he's out of control. Trap boxes are a good idea with P. papuanus, as with other PNG/Oz elapids.

I'd buy a pair of P. papuanus if given the chance.

i had experiences while i was snake catching in PNG, this boy´s are very shy. always like to get away from you, but as Randy´s experiences - if you spook them - they will not hesitate to bite. i observe them feeding mainly on frogs. this species is blamed to cost most of the snakebite victims, but studies showed Pseudechis papuanus is only responsible for around 3-4% of the bites. Prof. Warrell has done some awesome work in epidemologic studies on papuan snakebites and so on...

i wish you the best with them Mario!

cheers
Mario

Mario,

Where and when did you catch P. papuanus in PNG? I am interested, as the species has become extremely rare in most parts of the country (except the Trans-Fly), most likely due to the cane toad - any recent records would be interesting.

Cheers,

Wolfgang

The interesting thing is that nearly all PNG elapids never calm down in captivity but all elapids from australia. I´ve made these experience especially with Acanthophis ( sory for my bad english )

Hi Wolfgang,

its about two years ago. March 2006 to be exact.
i was on my way from Madang on a truck to Goroka.

while i spend few days with diving at the Magdan Resort (i can warmly recommend the Niugini Dive Avdentures for everyone interested in diving !!! especially Joseph, a local Diveinstructor knows his business!) i always heard about Pseudechis papuanus around Magdan, but as usual - i never found some there.

on the half way (about 3 hours drive!) from Magdan to Goroka the truck we ride with broke down. i had 5 hours time to look around a really urban area (dont know the exact place name as there where no village for miles around) when i sow my first blacksnake. within the hours "herping" around i get 3 specimens. they seemed to be common in this area. unfortunatly, at the Lutheran Guesthouse in Goroka, my passport, Money and my camera was stolen. i got no pictures at all !

another one cross my way close to Mendi...

Lake Kutubu was an interesting place as well, we always been told and warned about the crime and the dangerous snakes. we spend 4 days at a nice lodge, the owner Norman told us he had good connection to some peoples from Kantobo, a place we always heard storys about snakes. but its not easy to get there, as you have to cross the private property of the oil-company there.

When we arrived in Kantobo we had almost run out of money as the only bank in this region is in Mendi. So we were in a bad position when we found out that the people in this village try to rip off the “rich westerners”. First we had to pay for crossing the river, then they wanted us to pay a fortune for the trip to the lodge, which – as it turned out when we got there – hadn't been in use for several years, i.e. no electricity (of course), but also no water supply (except for the muddy water from the river). The situation got desperate when the owner wanted us to pay K 400 for a night in his `luxory' hotel. We simply didn't have the money (and wouldn't have been willing to pay that much anyway) and were already on the point of leaving and begging the villagers for refuge, when he finally gave in and let us stay for K 90 -- all we had left. i dont need to mention, there where no snakes at all to find and we went back the vary next morning.

never mind PNG - i will be back, soon!

cheers
Mario

Mario,

You probably won't like for me saying this, but you caught Stegonotus spp., not Pseudechis papuanus. Pseudechis papuanus occurs (or occurred) only in the southern savanna lowlands of PNG (Port Moresby area, Central Province, Milne Bay, eastern Gulf Province, and again in Western Province and adjoining Irian Jaya/Papua, not on the north coast or in the Highlands. See the distribution map here. The only larger elapids in the Highlands and in the Madang area are Acanthophis laevis and Micropechis ikaheka, neither of which looks remotely like P. papuanus. Stegonotus, on the other hand, are much more Pseudechis-like.

Cheers,

Wolfgang

of corse i like you to tell me this, as i have never seen them before and we dont catch them we only take pictures. so it could be easy to misidentify Stegonotus with Pseudechis... you remember the Stegonotus at Avilon Zoo? (if it was one anyway)..

thanks for the infos


cheers
Mario

I´ve never heard from zoo...........do they keep a Stegonotus and think it is P.papuanus ?!?!?!?

sure not.... LoL
but while photographing snakes, stegonotus is been easy confused with Pseudechis.. especially, if you dont work with them..

well in this case, we took lots of pictures, which is hard enough to do that in the wild with w snake like this.. after the camera has been stolen - we dont even had the chance to cross check - so all it has been memorized is what you first tough you saw.

but thats not always what you hold in hands.... i have seen this many times, especially in the field... so i am ok with it... we had stegonotus already, we keep them for months still not knowing what it was... on species was identified by gernot vogel, the other is still a miracle. nobody can identify this one.

cheers
Mario

Poorly I´ve got only a female first. When everything works two females and two males will follow. Still now she didn´t accept food. But I hope that´ll change the next days......i think normally it shouldn´t be difficult to feed Pseudechis even if theý´re wc ! What do you think ?!

Mario Strasser wrote:

Poorly I´ve got only a female first. When everything works two females and two males will follow. Still now she didn´t accept food. But I hope that´ll change the next days......i think normally it shouldn´t be difficult to feed Pseudechis even if theý´re wc ! What do you think ?!

Maybe I was lucky, but I believe my papuanus was WC and not in captivity lonh when I got him, and I don't remember him ever missing a meal. He ate frozen thawed mice/rats everytime. I may be getting another one. I need to call the guy to see if he still has it.

Yes..........how I said I hope she will start to eat soon..............I hate nothing more than snakes wich doesn´t eat !

Yesterday morning I put two dead mice into the cage. When I came back from work in the evening I couldn´t see them anymore !!

Good deal probably no more feeding problems

Here you can see my collettis : fotos.web.de/pyrrhus/Pseudechis_colletti