Deadly affair (common indian krait)

On this evening, I was browsing internet in my room, suddenly I heard some people talking about some snake. It seemed like somebody have spotted some snake. So I grabbed a light and rushed to the spot. 3-4 people have gathered in front of the house beside our house. They told me that someone saw a black snake when she was entering the house and came out of the house. I thought it would be common wolf snake as always. I entered the house. It had a small varandah at the entrance and then there is the gate is the gate of the bedroom. One side of the varandah was filled with coconut, what an ideal place for a snake, and the other side had some bricks stored. After a while, fortunately i found the snake in the brick stack.


I was surprised. I never imagined it to be a krait and there it was a common Indian krait waiting behind the bricks. This is my first krait sighting. I quickly told the people to get a strong stick and get some more light. I secured the head with stick and was about to catch the snake, suddenly a over-enthusiast man showed up with a big log in his hand. He didn’t hear anybody and straight tried to kill the snake. I was in an awkward situation. With one hand I was holding the stick with which I had secured the head of the snake and with the other hand I was trying to cover the blows made with the big log. The most terrifying thing was that the snake is no ordinary snake, it is the most venomous snake of asia. After a few blows the man paused for a second and I quickly captured the snake and started walking straight to my house. I put it in a plastic jar and kept it in a secure place.


Common Indian krait or Bungarus caeruleus is a nocturnal snake. In the daytime it is a very lazy and timid snake but at night a sharp contrast in behaviour can be seen. It becomes very active, alert and dangerous. In the daytime it generally rests in termite mounds, rodent burrows, stacks of bricks, rubbles or even inside household items like rolled up carpets. This snake is so well adopted in various habitats that it is found in almost all of India except Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh. It is mainly found in fields, low scrub jungles and even in marshy lands. It is also found near human habitation and often enters inside houses. This particular behaviour makes it more dangerous. Some time people get bitten unknowingly when they are asleep. Their bite is not as painful as cobra or viper bite but it is far more virulent than the two (it is 15 times more potent than the cobra). Its venom is both neurotoxic and heamotoxic. It is the MOST VENEMOUS snake of India. Bite from this snake must be treated at hospital with antivenom serum. Otherwise death will come in 5 to 12 hours. Symptoms are like cobra bite, drooping eyelid, severe abdominal pain, vomiting and respiratory problem. Usually the cause of death is respiratory failure.

It is a cannibalistic snake. It usually eats other snake often of the same species. It also eats frogs, lizards and mouse. It attains a maximum length of 1.73 m but average size is 1.2m. the specimen i caught was around 1m in length. May be due to their cannibalistic nature at the time of mating, they first carry out an examination of each other and then settles down together. Mating occurs in February- march. Kraits also stay with the eggs like the cobras.

After a few days I planned to release the Krait. But finding a suitable place was a real headache. There was no suitable place remote enough to release the snake. I had to travel 30km to find a place for the releasing. every day more and more lands are being converted into farmland, commercial land or residential area. Snakes and other life forms are finding it hard to find an unused patch of land which they can use as their safe refuse.

**One interesting fact I would like to mention. On my journey of 60 km, I found atleast 14 dead snakes, all are road kill, run over by cars. 6 of the snakes are olive keelback water snake, 4 are chekered keelback water snake, 2 are buff stripped keelback land snake, 1 is a rat snake and the other one was not in identifiable condition.

Hidden Jewels (skinks)

When the question comes about reptiles, we mostly don’t know the answer only because they are the most neglected one. People care about birds, people care about mammals but people don’t care about reptiles except the fact that people fear snakes. And among reptiles the most neglected ones will be the skinks. Leave aside the common people, even the experts don’t have much information about them.

Of these greatly neglected, less studied and very secretive animals, two species are found at my home town Tamluk, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal. The first one is the most common skink of India, Brahminy Skink or Keeled Grass Skink (Mabuya carinata). It has a robust bronze brown body with 2 lateral yellow stripes and a chocolate brown band on top. The legs are well developed. It grows upto a length of 290mm of which 170 mm is tail.

This skink is equally at home in rural as well as urban environment. It frequently enters houses in search of prey. It mainly feeds upon crickets, caterpillars, beetles, earth worms etc. Though skinks are mainly ground dwelling creature, it is a very good climber also. I have seen it climb 6’-8’ vertical cemented wall with ease. And it is so good at living in urban space that i found 2 specimens in our 2nd floor rooftop garden.

The second one is the Snake Skink or Supple Skink (Lygosoma punctatus). Very few have seen it partly because of its small size and partly because of its semi-fossorial living. Semi- fossorial means it spends its time both over and under the surface. For its underground living habit several changes have occurred on its body. The body is elongated and have a snake like appearance. Legs are very small compared to the body. This gives us a hint how snakes have lost their legs. And the lower eyelid has a transparent window. This enables it to see even when the eyelids are closed which is often the case in underground movements, to protect the eye from accidental scratching.

Other than these, its general coloration is brown above and yellowish white below. It can reach a length of 15cm of which half is its tail. Tail is rather thick and gradually tapers to a point. As it spends most of time under leaf litter, it is hard to see. One interesting fact is that, the colour of the tail of juvenile Supple Skink is bright red. It looses colour as it ages.

Living Dragon (water monitor)

Yesterday afternoon when i returned home, i heard my aunt talking about something like, “......let it starve.” I asked about it and came to know that a juvenile “gosap” (monitor lizard) had fallen into a cemented pit 2 days ago and could not climb up the pit till now. I enquired about the location and went straight there. The lizard was still alive but a little less energetic. I know only 2days starvation wont be a problem for reptiles but if direct sunlight hit the lizard for full day, that could be fatal. Lizards cant regulate their body heat internally and long exposure of direct sunlight will increase their body temperature to deadly level. I picked up the lizard and released it outside.

That incident made me think about the general behaviour of people towards monitor lizards. And i found it to be more promising than the snakes. Most of the people think that each and every snake is harmful and should be killed at first sight but for monitor lizards, it is somewhat neutral. People consider them harmful because monitor lizards can cause a great damage in poultry farms. Monitor Other than that people actually don’t care about them too much. Sometimes people even encourage the existence of monitor lizards in their locality ‘cause they believe that if monitor lizards stay in the locality, the locality would be free of venomous snakes as snake consist a part of their diet. A few tribal people consume monitor lizards as source of protein. But the particular trait of human which devastated the population of monitor lizards and pushed them on the brink of extinction is their liking of monitor lizards skin for leather trade. Fortunately they are now under legal protection. That helped them revive their population.

In our locality two types of monitor lizards are found. The bigger one is Water Monitor (Varanus salvator) and the relatively smaller one is Bengal Monitor (Varanus bengalensis). Being bigger the water monitor dominates the environment and are numerous than the Bengal Monitor. Water Monitor can grow upto a length of 2.5mtrs. very few of us actually know that this is the largest lizard on India and third largest lizard of the world. These lizards are semi-aquatic in nature. They are associated with water bodies and water channels. They roam in the water ways and relatively less frequented areas on the bank of the water bodies like backyard gardens, old ruins etc even inside the city. Generally they avoid people. They are diurnal in nature and come out to hunt mainly at dawn and noon when the human activity is less. Insects, fish, crab, turtle, birds, eggs, snakes and even small mammals consist their diet. They even feed on carrions which helps to keep the waterways clean. They are very adept swimmer. They even do mating inside water while swimming like crocodiles. This behaviour can be seen in the months of monsoon. In the localities where human interaction with the Water Monitor is more and people are more tolerant towards them, they even break inside the house to steal chicken and ducks. They can walk around fearlessly because they don’t have any predator when they are full grown but they have much reason to worry when they are juvenile. Wild cats, mongoose, hawks, egrets etc all prey on them.

As human encroachment on nature is increasing, the wildlife is facing a greater challenge. But a few species have succeeded to reap a bounty of this bad situation. They have adapted themselves to live with human in the modified environment. Water monitor is one of them. As people have built new irrigation channels and drainage systems, they have colonised these new areas and increased their spread in inland areas. This actually helped the species not only to survive but to thrive in these changing conditions.

Non-paying guest.. (Garnot's Gecko)

For last few days I was thinking about which reptile should I write on. I didn’t have any wildlife encounter lately. Suddenly a “tick, tick, tick, tick” noise from the room’s wall caught my attention. Two lizards were fighting for territory. That opened my eyes. These lizards are with me every single minute and still I have ignored them till now.

So I opened my guide books to identify the lizards but could not identify them exactly. Only learned that it is kind of a house gecko. Then I got a call from my friend Gudduda. He told me to pick up one book from College St., Kolkata. It was a field guide on Indian reptiles by Indranil Das. I thought may be that can help me. So I rushed to get the book as soon as possible. And yes, this book exactly identified it as Garnot’s Gecko (Hemidactylus garnoti).

This little lizard is very numerous in our area. Each room of our house contains 2-3 individuals at least. They are rarely seen in daytime. Generally hides behind cupboards, bookshelves, cracks on walls or inside ventilators. But as the sun sets, they come out to hunt. Like all other hemidactylus species or rather say geckos, they also maintain individual territories. But where food is numerous like around light bulbs, they don’t maintain territories and gather around to reap the bounty. They are carnivorous. Their main foods are insects, spiders and insect larvae. They eat a great number of them daily.

This gecko grows to about 7cm in length from snout to vent. The tail is about 5-7 cm in length. Tail can break at will and this gives it a opportunity to evade the predators by distracting them. It has a large head. The scales on back are small. It also has lateral denticulation on tail. The overall coloration is brownish grey. Belly is of cream colour.

There are a few very interesting facts about this particular gecko. The first one is about distribution. It is a very widespread species. In India, it is found in Eastern part including West Bengal, Sikkim and Assam. Internationally it is found also in Bhutan, mainland South-east Asia and upto the islands of Pacific Ocean. But locally it does not share space with any other gecko. In our area three species of geckos are found, Garnot’s Gecko(Hemidactylus garnoti), Northern House gecko (Hemidactylus fluviviridis) and Brook’s Gecko(Hemidactylus brookii). The northern house gecko is most numerous. I have seen northern house gecko to roam side by side with Brook’s gecko. But I have never seen anyone with Garnot’s gecko. Locally where these two are found, the Garnot’s gecko stays missing.

Another interesting fact is about their breeding habit. There have never been any record of the male of this gecko. That means the whole population consists of only female geckos. Parthenogenesis is not very rare in reptile world. It is the process of producing offspring with out the need of mating or male sperm. These geckos produces two oval shaped eggs per clutch without mating with males.

Some people consider geckos to be harmful. But this is only a misconception. Actually geckos do a great amount of good by eating insects. Also geckos are not poisonous. Only three lizards are poisonous , 2 lives in north America and 1 in Comodo Island. So, that means my article name is also a misnomer. It is actually paying me by providing pest control services..

Snake Behavior

When we think of snakes, what picture come in mind first? Don’t we think of a creepy creature which is fierce and aggressive and ready to strike a man at the first sight of it? But is it true??

For some moment lets leave snakes aside and stand on a persons foot. What will happen? Depending on who he is, the reaction will be different. If he is a mafia, he will blow your head off. If he is a local strongman, he will punch in your face. If he is a illiterate young villager, he will push you aside and flood your ears with slangs. If he is a aged person, he will ask you to stand aside or if he is a very shy person, he won’t even say anything. So, you see how such a simple act brings out so diverse reactions! Now, try to grab somebody by his neck.

The same is true for snakes also. Every species of snakes have different personality, some are aggressive, some are mild tempered and some are timid. If I talk about the local snakes that I have observed personally, the matter could be clearer.

First start with the brand icon of Indian snakes, Indian Cobra or Gokhro (Naja naja). Once with the help of a friend I have got a juvenile Indian Cobra. It was packed in a plastic jar and it was aggressive. When ever I took my fingers near the jar, it didn’t delay to strike. But when I released it into a grassland, it didn’t waste a second striking me and tried to escape.

In contrast, some of the most aggressive snakes that I have seen are actually non-venomous. Take the case of Common Rat Snake or Dhamon (Ptyas mucosa). It is one of the largest snakes that frequently enter our houses in search of rats. Generally it does not pose a threat but when you grab it or step on it, if you are not prepared, it can inflict very bad wound as it tries to strike repeatedly.

Another very aggressive snake is Checkered Keelback or Jaldhora (Xenochorphis piscator). This non-venomous snake is found in ponds. You bath or swim in water, it will swim past you and wont even bother about you but try to harass it by grabbing or stepping on it it will bite and hold on readily.

Where as another keelback, the Olive Keelback (Atretium schistosum), shows remarkably different behavior. Even if you grab it tightly or pick it up by hand, it won’t try to bite, only it will try to escape. It won’t even open its mouth for once.

A land snake, Buff-stripped Keelback or Hele (Amphiesma stolatum), shows behavior some-where in between. If you pick it up, it will surely bite but if you handle it gently with real care, it won’t feel stressed and wont bite.

The same is true for another land snake, Wolf Snake or Chitisap (Lycodon aulicus). It is also common house snake and a very good climber, often found high on walls. With gentle handling, it is possible to pick them up without getting bitten. But they are really sensitive to smell. One captive wolf snake that I had once reacted really aggressively when exposed to the smell of shoe polish. I had not done this with other snakes but it could be true for them also.

Two tree snakes show two different behaviors. The Green Vine Snake or Laudoga (Ahaetulla nasuta) is very fast in striking. Being a tree snake it can lift its body remarkably and bite on the hand that is holding it. It may even bite on the nose or eyes. And when it bites, it holds on to it for a long time. But all these happen only if you are stopping it from escaping by holding it. Otherwise it will escape at your first sign.

The other one, common Bronzeback or Bet-achra (Dendrelaphis tristis), is different. It is reluctant in biting and bites only if you really provoke it. It too holds on to after biting. But if it gets a chance to escape, it will escape in blazing speed.

A venomous snake, Russell’s Viper or Chandrobora (Daboia russelii), shows a behavior altogether different. When I released a captured Russell’s Viper, it did not flee. It stands its ground and hissed loudly. It was so loud that if you hear it once, you wont forget it. And NEVER PICK UP A VIPER WITH HAND. Even if you survive after medication, it will leave a permanent damage on your body. But if you leave it alone, given enough time, it will go away.

So, what we see common in all these snakes is that they wants to escape at the first sign of danger that means us, except the viper. Vipers do not escape because they are not fast enough to evade danger by escaping. So, they stay there and confront danger face-to-face and. That is the moral of the story. Snakes show different behavior depending on the species but no one wants to bite us unless we are pushing it to do it. So if we leave them alone, they will leave us alone. And all will live happily ever after. Isn’t it true for human also??

Bio-diversity inside factory premises.

For the past few months I am working at a machining plant at Jamshedpur, India. The duty time consumes almost the whole day. So, when I joined the plant, I was a bit sad because I wont get as much time as I had before for observing the nature. But things don’t always happen as we thought it will be.

For the first few days at the plant, I didn’t see anything other than House Crows. But it is also true that in the first few days I didn’t have time to observe, I was busy familiarizing with my work. After the first few days, when I got the time to see things other than my work, the wildlife started to unfold itself in front of my eyes. The plant area is quite big and it contains a good number of trees. And these trees are what are supporting the wildlife. The trees have all been planted after the plant has been set. Mango trees, Ucalyptus, akashmoni and teak trees are the main constituent. There also is a propane gas storage facility which supports low bushes and also the trees that have been mentioned. It is like a small garden outside the noises of the machines.

As I have said earlier, I found house crows in there. Large-billed crows are also a frequent visitor. House sparrow is very abundant species in here. You will find them in every corner of the plant. They are most amusing when they quarrel and fight with each other before finally settling on the brunches of teak trees for the night. They are very comfortable in the factory environment. I have watched those making nests inside the machining sheds. Another bird that I have seen nesting inside the sheds is spotted dove. Spotted doves are not too much abundant. There are probably 2-3 pairs in the factory premises. Red-whiskered bulbul is numerous but they never enter the factory sheds. They roam from trees to trees. They even made nests on the mango trees. Oriental pied starlings are very common. They move about in groups. But they rarely come to trees in front of the machining sheds. They roam the trees at the propane storage area. They don’t nest in here. I have seen a pair of oriental magpie robins just out side the factory wall. They always stay there, but never cross the wall and enter the factory. Another bird that can be seen inside the factory is black kite. Only if we assume that the airspace above the factory belongs to the factory because they never land inside the factory. They just fly in circles above it. Sunbirds are seasonal visitors when the trees are in full bloom.

In the butterfly world it is a tiger country. You will always find a plain tiger gliding in the pathways. Some times it is the Stripped Tiger. Blue tiger is also a frequent flier. The few lantana bushes inside the factory always attract one or two Common Immigrants. Chocolate Pansy and Peacock Pansy can be found on the walls basking in the morning sun. Common Evening Browns hover around lights in the evening. Two types of very tiny blues, namely Indian cupid & Grass Jewel can be found anywhere among the grasses. Only once a Peacock glided past me. I just caught a glimpse of it. So I couldn’t specifically identify it. Common Mormon is not numerous but not very rare either.

The herpeto-faunal world in the factory is very rich, not in diversity but in numbers. Practically every tree, every bush supports a lizard. The main competitor is Common Garden Lizard. You will find them almost on every tree trunk and on every bush. In the propane storage area where some workers spend time during the lunch time, the Garden Lizard got so brave that they even come on ground within two feet of people to eat ants and other insects. They have become accustomed with human presence. The workers also don’t disturb the lizards. Another numerous lizards are Peninsular Rock Agama. They adjust with Common Garden Lizard beautifully. They have different character and needs than the Common garden Lizards. Common Garden Lizards are more aggressive, Rock Agamas are timid in nature. They are shy creatures in nature. They like to stay hidden in the crevices of walls or in rocks and bricks lying in the factory. Rock Agamas have such cryptic coloration that when they are hard pressed on the rock walls or on the tree trunks, from a moderate distance they are completely invisible. Brahminy Skinks are also present in the factory. But due to their nature of staying below the leaf litter, they are met only occasionally. Among geckos, there is Northern House Gecko, Frilled Gecko and Brook’s gecko.

Overall I would say I am very much impressed by the diversity that I found in the factory. Frankly speaking, I never ever thought that I would find so many different species in the factory.

Ignorant Killing (Common Sand Boa)

Do I always have to find a new snake as dead?? I am sick of it. The number of roadkill snakes is really increasing in numbers

I first saw a Sand Boa in my childhood in a snake exhibition. And I was fascinated by it. Its stout body and asymmetrical patterns on back was really beautiful. But then for long I have not seen one.When I started studying about snakes, again it captured my interest. I found that it is one of the best snakes to learn handling snakes. most of the Sand Boas are timid in nature. but a few are aggressive. So I started searching the inventory of the snake charmers to get a Sand Boa but with no luck. Once I found a Red Sand Boa, which was also a good snake to learn handling, have bargained for it but the charmer was unwilling to sell the snake.

Now a few days back, in the morning when I was going for work, I found a small dead snake inside the factory premises.And it turned out to be a Sand Boa, the snake I was looking for years. Most probably it was killed by the security when it came out at night for hunting. It was sad. Being a non-venomous snake, it did not pose a threat to the well being of any person working inside the premise. Though it had to die. Only because it is a snake. Lack of knowledge or should I say wealth of mis-conception is so prevalent among the people that most of them dont even hesitate once to kill a snake at the first sight. They don't seem to understand that snakes are an important player of our eco-system. Without it the eco-system will collapse.

So on that morning, I felt responsible. I went to the General Manager of our Human Resource Dept.and talked with him on this matter. he seemed to understand.I have given him my no to call me on any animal-human conflict inside factory. I am still waiting for the phone call. But for the time being there are no dead snakes in the factory anymore.

But then today afternoon when I was walking on the streets in our residential area, I found another dead Sand Boa. It was a road kill.The condition of it was telling that it wasm killed last night. Another interesting thing is that both the Sand Boas are approximately of same size of about 8"-10". That means they are juveniles. This Shows that this area supports a healthy population of Sand Boa. I think I should look for live ones personally.

Natural History

Common Sand Boa (Gongylophis conicus) is a member of the family Boa-constrictor. They are stout bodied muscular snakes. Being heavy bodied Common Sand Boa is a slow moving snake. It is a nocturnal snake. So it hunts at night. It catches prey by ambush. It waits for the prey and constricts the prey to death by making coil around the prey. It is a non-venomous snake. Common Sand Boa generally hunts lizards, frogs, calotes, skinks,small birds and small mammals. It is found all over India except the north east region. Common Sand Boa prefers dry habitats like arid scrub lands, coastal and sandy areas. it lives in burrows and crevices. Average length of Common Sand Boa is about 1'8" but it can reach a length of 3'3". It is a ovo-viviparous snake. That means it gives birth to live young snakes and does not lay eggs. Delivery of young snakes happens generally in July August.

Down memory lane (Fan Throated Lizard)

This time when I was browsing though the pages of sanctuary Asia magazines Dec ’10 issue, one particular photo caught my eye. Two fan throated lizards have jumped up into the air while they were fighting. Its not that it was the only stunning photo, there were several but this one refreshed the memory of my last year’s Orissa tour.

Last year in the month of May, I with two friends had gone to Rusikullya, Orissa to see the Olive Ridley turtles emerging from the eggs. I wrote about that in May, ’10 posting in detail. The area was filled with Garden Lizard (Calotes versicular). They seem to be everywhere. And because of the white sand, their overall coloration was more whitish. After clicking their photos the whole morning, I quite got bored. Then we went to a well for bathing. There were plenty of thorny scrubs around. Suddenly a movement in the scrubs caught my eye. I hoped to find a snake in there. But when I carefully inspected, it was no less rewarding. I found a small lizard of brown coloration in there. I had never seen it before. So I tried to catch it for close inspection but it was too quick for me. After several attempts I finally gave up and hoped of spotting it again sometime later.

In the next morning we went out to see the mass hatching of Olive Ridely. But to reach the spot we had to hike for several kilometers along the coast line. During that hike, in the Casurina plantation I found the lizard again. It was running on the sandy ground. But when it was entering a scrub, because of its markings on the back, it was being very hard to spot. I once again tried and failed to catch one. Then the boy from the local NGO came to my rescue. It caught one lizard for me. Close inspection reveled the skinny flap on its throat. It surely indentified it as a Fan Throated Lizard (Sitana ponticeriana).

Natural history

Fan Throated Lizard is a small and handsome lizard. It is found in two different size forms. In the Mumbai area, the size is about 70-80mm and in the rest of the area the size is 40-50mm. Fan Throated Lizard is found in all regions except heavy rainfall area and desert. In India it is not found east of Ganga River. It is a ground dwelling, diurnal lizard. Mainly feeds on ants and small insects. The overall coloration is brown and underside is white. The dark brown patches on its back help it to blend in with ground level vegetation. The most interesting part of it is the fan like appendage on its throat. In the mating season this fan on the breeding males become blue anteriorly, blue-black center and red posteriorly. Male lizards stand on the hind legs and open and close its fan. Female lizards watch this display hiding in a bush. Males also fight to defend their territory and females. Mating commences from April-May and egg laying occurs in July.

confusing color (Common Tree Frog)

Previously I talked about unusual behavior of herpeto-fauna regarding hibernation. This new incident is also related to that.

A few days back, in the morning, I was working in a abandoned garden. Suddenly a “white thing with black spots on it” caught my attention. It was inside a well. So I leaned into it.It was a frog. The size and shape was also telling me that it was a Common Tree Frog. But I was confused about the coloration. I have seen Common Tree frogs earlier. They were light brown in color and had black stripes on the legs but no spots on the back. This one however has prominent big black spots on the back and its coloration is white, not brown. So when I returned home I consulted the books by J. C. Daniel and Ranjit Daniel and found some really interesting points about Common Tree Frogs. And these points some what confirmed that it is a Common Tree Frog.
In Hindi, Common Tree Frog is called ‘Chunam’ Frog. Chunam means lime. This frog bears white coloration, the coloration of lime, and that is how it has got its name. So now I became more interested and wanted to study it further. But where am I gonna find it?? If it’s not hibernating, it will surely come out at night to hunt. Another fact I learned came in handy. Previous studies showed that this frog comes out every night to hunt but it returns to the exact place at dawn. That solved my problem. Now I know where to find it. The next morning I visited that place again and yes, I found the frog at exactly the same place. It was resting 6’-8’ down into the well.
So I climbed down the wall of the well to get it. My brother was with me to help me do things. Catching it was not a problem. My personal experience showed me that Common Tree Frogs don’t always jump at the first instance. If you put your hand in-front of it and push a little from behind, it will even crawl up on your hand and stay there. I caught it and brought it home.

At home, I setup a little environment in my new terrarium and the frog found a comfortable corner inside an earthen pot readily. It passed the whole day inside the pot. At night it came out and after some time, crawled up the glass wall of my terrarium and stayed there whole night. It was quite surprising how it sticked to the smooth glass wall. In the morning I took it out and released it. I found an explanation for the color but the spots are yet to be confirmed. Though I read in the books that Common Tree Frogs sports black stripes and spots on the back but the photographs and live ones I have seen didn’t have the spots.


Natural history
Common Tree Frog (Polypedates maculatus) is one of the most common tree frogs of India. It is a medium sized frog. Adults’ measure upto 3.8-8.5 cm. Females are larger than the males. It is found through-out the Indian sub-continent except the arid and semi-arid regions. It has a interesting semi urban characteristic. It is fond of human homes and thus in cities with extensive gardens, it is very abundant. Common Tree Frogs enter human homes and take shelter behind books, vases, inside cupboards, cloths etc. and once they settle down, it is very difficult to get rid of them. They tend to come back to the exact place even they are thrown out of the window. They do this to stay away from the dryness of outside air. But every evening they go out to replenish their water stock and to hunt. Frogs can absorb water through skin. But this particular species has developed this to a greater level. They can absorb significant amount of water and store it partly under abdomen and partly under the skin of hind legs.
Common Tree Frogs can also change their body color to a certain extent to match the color of their surroundings. In day time when they are in rest, they sport white color. In night when they are active, they sport light-dark brown color. Their breeding starts in May on the onset of monsoon season. Their mating call is like “DODODODO--DODO”. They lay their eggs in foam nests on over-hanging leaf on a water pool. Tadpoles that emerge from the eggs are washed to the pool by rain or the nest melts. The transformation takes about 55 days to develop a baby frog from egg.

## there is a popular belief in South India. They say, if a Common Tree Frog leaps over a childs leg, his legs become thin and weak. Needless to say that its only a belief, there is no scientific base regarding it.

unsolved puzzle in winter

December, January being the winter months, I thought that I can go into hibernation. There will be no-more posting in the blog as it is mainly a reptile related blog. And everyone knows that reptiles go into hibernation in winter. Reptiles can not regulate their body heat, their body temperature changes with ambient temperature. So, when the ambient temperature drops in winter they had to find a warm place and stay inside. Otherwise they will die in cold. Hibernation is a state of dormancy during which reptiles slow down their metabolic rate so that they don’t have to eat for the whole period of hibernation.


There are some exceptions in this trend. I have seen some particular snakes to remain active in winter time also. They are less active than the warmer time but they are still active. The snakes are Rat Snake and Checkered Keelback. The first one is a land snake and the second one is a water snake. Both are common snakes of this area. The common lizard found in our area i.e. Common Garden Lizard also remains active. Single garden lizard basking morning sunlight on a garden fence or at the end of a small brunch is a common sight. One other common household lizard i.e. Northern House Gecko stays active too. They seem to gather around lights in less number though. But I didn’t found any amphibian to stay active in this time.


But this year my observation seems to tell a different story altogether. I have first located a Common Bronzeback busking in sunlight in the morning on a brick wall. A few days later I saw a Common Toad to be out for the night’s hunt at around 10pm. Within a week, I got some information about killing of 4 Indian Cobra in a nearby paddy-field while the snakes were basking in the morning. Then I saw a Russell’s Viper to sun bask on a small bush beside a railtrack. I found an Indian Bullfrog that day evening. Literally it was out for hunting, frogs don’t wander around. The following days showed me Common Toads a few times again. Oneday when I was returning home at night around 9:30 pm, I found a fresh roadkill Olive Keelback snake. Generally I find them at the location in the rainy season, not in winter time. And the most crazy of them all happened just a few days ago. I found a few Skittering Frogs were calling for mating in a small water body. And they are still calling for the past few days.


The reptile and amphibian species that I have mentioned here are the main species around here. Their activity shows us what in general all the species are doing in here. Without any confusion we can draw a decision that the reptiles and amphibians of this area obviously have not gone to hibernation. It may be the change of weather or the pollution and all that which is creating this change. But what is the reason behind the mating call of the frogs?? There was no rain for the past 2 months and I have not heard mating calls from any other water bodies. So, what is causing the frogs of this particular water body to call for breeding??