1. Snakebite, which was reclassified as a neglected tropical disease by the World Health Organization in 2017, afflicts at least 1.8-2.7 million people worldwide each year. Understanding the habits of medically significant snakes can help us better construct preventative measures which reduce snake-human conflicts and snakebite. 2. As a case study, using radio-telemetry, we monitored a single focal Bungarus candidus individual for 102 days within a suburban landscape (a university dormitory complex) in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. 3. Daily location checks revealed the telemetered snake sheltered within human settlement habitat 75% of the time it was tracked, where we also documented active foraging, a predation event and interactions with humans. 4. Despite being captured and relocated to an adjacent forest on two occasions, the focal animal promptly returned to the dormitories. Translocation as a management tool requires meaningful discussion at the local level and further study, considering the costs and potential limitations for effectiveness. 5. This case study provides brief insight into the ecology and behaviour of one of Asia's most medically significant snake species and highlights challenges current conflict management practices face locally. Our observations appear to lend credibility to preventative measures such as increasing awareness, encouraging the use of flashlights and carefully maintaining buildings so that snakes cannot enter through crevices or plumbing. Snake-human conflict prevention and mitigation techniques require further evaluation to determine the effectiveness of prescribed management methods.

The Big-Eyed Green Pit Viper (Trimeresurus macrops; Kramer, 1977) is a venomous snake species endemic to Southeast Asia. Although we have some knowledge of the systematics and toxicology ofT. macrops, little is known about the spatial ecology of this species. From May 2013 to February 2014, we used radio-telemetry to determine home-range sizes of 13 adult femaleT. macropsinhabiting the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve in Northeast Thailand. We found that individual home ranges forT. macropsaveraged 0.175 ha, with activity areas ranging from 0.112-0.303 ha and core areas ranging from 0.023-0.052 ha. There was little overlap between conspecific tracked females, especially for the most used areas of their home ranges. We find thatT. macropsambushes more in higher humidity and expresses very little diurnal activity. They use the groundstory for ambushing, then retreat over small distances to higher refuge during the day. Future studies should focus on prey abundance, habitat selection, and survival rates.

No abstract

Green Pit Vipers are a widely distributed, diverse group of snakes which occur across a variety of habitats.  Little is known about their natural history in anthropogenically modified environments, and no ecological work has investigated their persistence in cities.  We non-invasively photo-monitored White-lipped Green Pit Vipers Trimeresurus (Cryptelytrops) albolabris in the metropolis of Bangkok, Thailand (n = 4 individuals, mean = 2,658 minutes per individual).  Subsequently, we preliminarily characterize urban green pit vipers as nocturnal predators, displaying ambush-foraging at night, sheltering during the day, and having limited movement in between temporal periods.  We recorded two predation events of vipers capturing and ingesting anuran prey.  Vipers infrequently displayed tail undulations (239 minutes total), with one event occurring immediately before a predation event.  We also document chemosensory, probing, and mouth-gaping behaviors having occurred exclusively at night.  Other vertebrates including birds, frogs, geckos, small mammals, and a cobra were photographed interacting with focal vipers or their immediate surroundings (315 minutes total).  Knowledge of organisms in tropical urban environments is scarce, and the persistence of venomous snakes in these unique and challenging habitats requires further study.

We used telemetry to track the movements of the females of two sympatric green pit viper species, Cryptelytrops macrops and Viridovipera vogeli, in north-eastern Thailand. This has generated information on their home ranges, lengths of displacements, and vertical niche partitioning. Five female vipers were tracked simultaneously within the same general habitat for 78 days in the cold, dry season for a mean of 113.6 ± 5.38 (range: 101 - 129) fixes. The data show that V. vogeli had larger home ranges and greater displacements than C. macrops (0.49 ± 0.02 and 0.26 ± 0.07 ha, 38.01 ± 9.72 and 25.12 ± 2.40 m; respectively). Interestingly, V. vogeli selected arboreal sites significantly more frequently (mean 53.0 ± 14.4 % of observations, range 38.6 - 67.5) than sympatric C. macrops (mean 23.4 ± 13.2 %, range 5.3 - 49.2). We cautiously suggest that vertical stratification of these two sympatric vipers may be one factor facilitating the co-existence of otherwise morphologically similar species.