Bothriopsis taeniata taeniata, images deleted.

Mirco Kempter has deleted his images.

Stunning.

Very nice and not a species I am familiar with.

Keep the images coming

My oh My...i think i just fell in love. Thats stunning Smile

Stunning snake!

Great looking animal, post some more pictures if you can:)

Beautiful.

Mirco:

very nice snake...

thx for sharing.

Greetings from Incas´Land !

Mirco , an exceptional specimen/s.

So beautifull!
We really know to little about them, don't we?

The adult in the 4th picture looks super strong and healthy.

Mirco Kempter has deleted his post.

It looks so great that it went staight to my wishlist ... great pics btw.

Thanks Mirco for clearing that up!
That's a whopper, 110 cm in 17 months allready.
How long are they in general?

Greetings Arjan.

Hello Arjan, The Speckled forest Pit-viper is about as long as the average man is tall in Zurich Switzerland, this is an average as very few specimen have been recorded, .
There venom properties are mainly hemotoxic, the western forms of Bothriopsis taenieata differ in having little to no coagulating factors in the mix.
First cousins of Bothriopsis bilineata, arboreal with prehensile tails, extremely long fang length, LD 50 unknown ?.
Zoobotanicals (me) in Miami produced a litter of the western form of Bothriopsis taenieata in 2010 and their growth is in line with Dr. Kempters report.
Their true colors are difficult to reproduce on film and Mirco failed to capture their 24carat gold speckling through out its olive green length, hence giving this speciemen the nickname of estrellita (little stars) in the region where they are found in the Amazonian foothills of Ecuador.

That's verry welcome information Albert,

that is rather a large snake then, wow.
Maybe if Mirco doesn't minde (his topic), would it be possible for Albert to include some pictures of his animals? I would love it.

What I find amazing is the diversity of snakes.
You wuold think that a couple of species would dominate at on place in time.
But that just is not the case.

These taeniata are verry yellow in collor, i know there are other collorations.
Anyone?

Thanks,
Arjan.

I'd say 140cm is a good average size for an adult specimen in the wild. The biggest specimen ever caught measured 180cm. In captivity such lengths are reached pretty easily by females.

The head is large and the fangs are exceptional! To give you an idea here a link to a short video clip somewhere on the internet.
http://en.clipdealer.com/video/media/62429

What concerns the challenge of capturing the gold speckling.. I think it's even more difficult than taking photographs of Protobothrops mangshanensis. I'll try to post some more detailed pictures later on.

About its venom: Here's a case report of an envenomation in Brazil, admittedly with very poor information only. Be aware that this is an example of a mild envenomation, the outcome can be a lot worse!
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rsbmt/v42n3/v42n3a20.pdf

@ Arjan: What concerns the colouring of B. t. taeniata you have to differentiate between specimens of western and eastern South America (see the distribution map linked below).

http://zoologia.puce.edu.ec/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=14188

The western colour morph is coloured like the specimen on the pictures shown above. Of course there is a wide variation - there are specimens which are pretty dark to almost black with just a few yellow lines remaining and there are others with predominantly yellow, beige or creamy white parts.
The eastern colour morph is even more mutable; from gray to rusty brown to bright green..

To give you an idea of the colour morphs of B. t. taeniata..

Specimen from Puyo, Pastaza, Ecuador
(this is quite a good picture in regard to the gold speckling)
http://zoologia.puce.edu.ec/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=18452

Specimen from Macuma, Morona-Santiago, Ecuador
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=0000+0000+0208+1594

Specimen from Cláudia, Mato Grosso, Brazil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9804034@N04/4895429403/

Specimen from Lower Cristalino River Region, Mato Grosso, Brazil
http://www.snomnh.ou.edu/personnel/herpetology/vitt/Cerrado/Cristalino/Largephotos/B_taeniata_11496-6.jpg

Remember one thing Dr. Kempter before Campbell and Lamar's new version of Venomous Reptiles-Western Hemisphere only 5 eastern Bothriopsis taenieata were ever imported or even witnessed alive at least in the United States herpetological history as per Dutchman (Theo Henzen's pers. comm. )and these were subsequently purchased for an undisclosed amount by the Dallas Zoo and kept very quiet.---> Importer Mr. Tom Crutchfield.
This new version of this textbook revealed excellent new species never before witnessed in the modern world alive and some not even dead (top secret) ? of the Bothriopsis family etc. from other less well known herpetological Amazonian "hot spots" and so i would add to value your western amazonian specimen/s as you may very well be the only other "non local" human being on earth with any in captivity.
*Unfortunately Ecuador is now closed to exports for even for scientific reasons.
*Zoobotanicals presently works with Bothriopsis taenieata from three distinct locals.

Mirco Kempter has deleted his images.

Hey Albert,

in European collections Bothriopsis taeniata is not too rare. A spanish guy is breeding this species constantly since a few years and as far as I know all animals in Europe come from this source. Sadly he breeds only the Ecuadorian form, and the adults do not look that brightly coloured like the juveniles. Mircos animals should turn much darker with time as well. I think the superb green coloured (adult) animals from Suriname and Brazil will stay a dream and will not be available for private collections within the next time.

Best regards

Frank

Yes Frank this is so, Mirco informed me of this very talented breeder in Europe and i just sent him some photo slides of my Colombian, Suriname and Brazilian Speckled Forest pitvipers for his world famous magazine and TV show and to be precise mine are from the border of Colombia and Brazil from a port called Tabatinga and Dutch Guyana Suriname.

Frank the beauty of the Speckled forest pit-viper is in the speckling which is hard to see from a photograph and seems no two specimens are alike and yes i believe the Suriname (eastern) form is the rarest as you say.
Their ribbon like body and overall bone structure is exquisite , most are some form of olive green when the flash hits the serpent the speckles fade and the olive converts to earth tone or browns a good challenge for the professional photographers on this forum but youll have to find some one who owns one first, good observation!

In addition to this, varied EU collectors have PM me about my comment of the rarity of Bothriopsis taenieata from Ecuador in EU, well before this "talented Spanish breeder" reproduced them, which is the idea no, they were zero in captivity around the modern world and zero in any textbook , virtually unheard of and still there are non in any museum collection except perhaps locally and on loan at a Texas university or perhaps England.
Even the almost extinct mangs with reputed apprx. five hundred left in the habitat are represented in US collection by at least 100 specimens not including EU and Asia so how rare is Bothriopsis taenieata i dont know but there are zero Ecuadorian specimen in the USA today, and zero of any other form/type in any private collection that i am aware of in The United States of America.

Mirco Kempter has deleted his post.

most pics are of these guys on the ground how arboreal are they? nice snakes by they way. I wish that the were here in the stes alot more.
TQ

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