Cyprus-Forum.com

[supporttheunderdog]

Saw two snakes on the doggy walk today, just about 100m from the house, on a small plot of undeveloped land among the houses. Doggy was fascinated and wanted to have a closer look. One appeared to be an adult black whip snake, it shot into the long grass very fast so i did not get a very good view, the other, which i had a better view of as it slithered along the street beside me for a few metres, appeared to be a juvenile whip snake so quite harmless, if not beneficial.

Beautiful. Just hope they are left alone.

[Tim Drayton]

Last year, in the spring, I was on one of my regular walks on the fringes of the urban area and suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. Spread out on a largish rock about one and a half metres in front of me was what I believe is known in both Cypriot vernacular languages as a 'goufi', i.e. the highly poisonous snub-nosed viper. I am sure that is what it was because when I visited the snake park in Paphos years ago, I took a good look at the ones in captivity there, knowing that as a regular walker in the Cypriot countryside, I should be able to recognise one. I crouched down and just looked at it for a while with a mixture of wonder and fear, knowing that their venom can kill within seconds. It was totally motionless and I was not sure of it was dead. Anyhow, I made a detour to give it a wide berth as I passed it, and on the way back I noticed that it was no longer there, so it must have been alive. The main thing that struck me was how effective its camouflage was against the backdrop of the Cypriot countryside - that is why I came so close before noticing it. A magnificent sight all the same, and, apparently, they will never attack people except in defence.

[Svetlana]

I was out with my wretched dog, 30 minutes ago, when I came across a Viper, just under 1m in length - the biggest I have ever seen outsde a zoo. It crawled along the road close to the kerb before climing across the pathway into the grass.

The dog (useualy afraid of nothing) held back from the snake, which was making mild hissing noises, but barked and became aggressive when the snake went onto the pavement.

A couple of years ago there was a small Viper, which my dog cornered. Although very small, the snake reared up and hissed and threw its head, fangs open, in a threatening manner.

I can never bring myself to hurt them.

[Cap]

Anybody know what happened with the Cyprus grass snake.
cyprus31962.html

[supporttheunderdog]

I have seen the BNV in the wild several times, once from about two metres away. Its bite is not quite that bad. All the same it is serious if one is bitten : apparently one has about 4 hrs to get to help before serious problems are likely to arise involving chopping off bitten bits and eight to ten hours before it becomes life threatening.

I know of a guy who was bit a few weeks back. He had several days in Hospital.

I had quite a close encounter with one snake as I nearly trod on it - it was sheltering in a drainage tunnel under the highway near Governor's beach, which I was passing through. Not nice to see it rear up and hiss.... not sure if was a Montpelier or a cat snake.

[cyprusgrump]

I saw a mahoosive BNV yesterday while walking the dog - biggest I have ever seen too... it was this big *holds out arms*...

No more than twenty meters from my house...

New dog was fascinated by it and wanted to have a go....

[SSBubbles]

So far this year (on our walks) we have encountered several whip snakes of varying sizes and one BNV! They are waking up far too early for my liking!

[GreekIslandGirl]

Snakes are everywhere - what's new?

What is really delightful is to have a chameleon walk over your laptop - and it takes a while to notice.

(Will never forget the day hubby tried to kick a stone out of the way on a trek and it turned out to be a tortoise.)