Chrysopelea (Flying Snake)

Chrysopelea (Flying Snake)

Description:
 Chrysopelea, or more commonly known as the flying snake, is a genus that belongs to the family Colubridae. Flying snakes are mildly venomous,though they are considered harmless because their toxicity is not dangerous to humans.Their range is in Southeast Asia (the mainland, Greater and Lesser Sundas, Maluku, and the Philippines), southernmost China, India, Sri Lanka.

Habitat:
Chrysopelea ornata ornattissima is a flexible snake. It can be found in forests, on plantations, in gardens and in houses. This snake is regularly found in the inner city areas of Bangkok and Pattaya. As they feed on rodents, geckos and other lizards, they are often found on and in houses. These snakes are active during the day, can climb walls and are very fast.

Gliders:
Chrysopelea is also known under its assigned common name "flying snake". It glides by using its ridge scales along its belly,pushing against rough bark surface of tree trunks, allowing it to move vertically up a tree. Upon reaching the end of a tree's branch, the snake continues moving until its tail dangles from the branch's end. It then makes a J-shape bend,leans forward to select the level of inclination it wishes to travel to control its flight path, as well as selecting a desired landing area. Once it decides on a destination, it propels itself by thrusting its body up and away from the tree, sucking in its stomach, flaring out its ribs to turn its body in a "pseudo concave wing all the while making a continual serpentine motion of lateral undulation[9] parallel to the ground to stabilise its direction in midair in order to land safely.

The combination of sucking in its stomach and making a motion of lateral undulation in the air makes it possible for the snake to glide in the air, where it also manages to save energy compared to travel on the ground and dodge terrestrial bounded predators.The concave wing that a snake creates in sucking its stomach, flattens its body to up to twice its width from back of the head to the anal vent, which is close to the end of the snake's tail, causes the cross section of the snake's body to resemble the cross section of a frisbee or flying disc.When a flying disc spins in the air, the designed cross sectional concavity causes increased air pressure under the centre of the disc, causing lift for the disc to fly.A snake continuously moves in lateral undulation to create the same effect of increased air pressure underneath its arched body to glide.Flying snakes are able to glide better than flying squirrels and other gliding animals, despite the lack of limbs, wings, or any other wing-like projections, gliding through the forest and jungle it inhabits with the distance being as great as 100 m.Their destination is mostly predicted by ballistics; however, they can exercise some in-flight attitude control by "slithering" in the air.

venom:
If they feel threatened and cannot flee, they bite straight away. The species Chrysopelea belongs to the family of rearfanged snakes. However, the venom so mild that it does not have much of an effect on humans. 

Diet: 

Chrysopelea are diurnal, which means they hunt during the day. They prey upon lizards, frogs, birds and bats.

 

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Puerto Rican Boa

Puerto Rican Boa

 Description:

The Puerto Rican Boa or "culebr" is the largest native species of snake, and one of only three Boidae on the island. It typically grows to a length of 6 or 7 feet, although 12 foot long specimens have been reported. The Boa's color varies from tan to dark brown with 70 to 80 crossbars or spots which are outlined in very dark brown. 

Puerto Rican Boa

 Reproduction:

Pregnant females give birth to about 23-26 live young boas. Young boas have never been kept in captivity because their feeding patterns have never been studied.

Puerto Rican Boa

 Habitat:

The Puerto Rican Boa may be found on the ground or in trees. In some areas of the forest the Boa hangs from branches, vines and rock ledges at the mouths of caves and when bats brush by them or collide with them they capture and eat them.

 Feeding Behavior:

The boa feeds by seizing the prey in its jaws, wrapping several coils around the victim, and then constricting until the prey has suffocated. The prey is then swallowed head first. The feeding habits of the very young are unknown.

Since the karst region in which the Puerto Rican boa lives usually has many caves, the boa has the opportunity to feed on bats. It was previously unknown how the boa managed to capture the bats in flight. Observations revealed that boas hang at the opening of the cave, waiting until bats fly out of it. Then they grab a bat with their jaws before killing it via constriction.

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Bardick Snake (Echiopsis curta)

The bardick is a small snake found in leaf litter and among vegetation debris in semi-arid areas of the southern part of the continent. It is grey or grey-brown in colour and typically grows to no mre than about 60cm in length. The head is distinct, being broader tha the neck. It preys on small lizards, frogs and small mammals. Its venomous status is uncertain, but the venom has been found to have similarities with death adder venom. Females produce a litter of between 3 and 14 live young.

Description

The Bardic Snake is an evil Yuan-Ti character. The Yuan-Ti are known as a deceitful and controlling race, and so the idea of one who would sing lies in order to weaken an enemy is fitting, as is the Bard's use of enchantment spells to control enemies. This particular Yuan-Ti is also an experienced veteran warrior and has dabbled in necromancy (hence the Blackguard and Pale Master levels). Because of these factors, this particular build has very solid role-playing qualities. However, it is made also as a power build designed to gain both Epic Divine Might and Hymn of Requiem while achieving high saves, spell resistance, and AC as well as significant power with enchantment spells. It is extremely versatile, with countless options for how to approach a battle. As such, there are very few types of enemies that this character is hard-pressed to deal with. In fact, this build tested favorably against most builds I tested it against in the Battle of the Builds mod. This is remarkable considering 1v1 completely ignores the important party buffing aspect of Bards.

Part of the aim of this build is versatility. It is fun to have multiple viable options on how to approach a battle. The Bardic Snake can approach things in a lot of different ways. He can be use epic divine might to be a major melee damage dealer. He can pump up his defense with inspirations, songs, and spells to become a tank. He can debuff opponent's will saves and then throw out hard to resist enchantment spells. He can throw down a series of bombs like curse song, hymn of requiem, and ice storm and watch like a Wizard or Sorcerer does as his party mops up the severely weakened/damaged enemies. Inspire Regeneration can make him a poor man's cleric between battles. Pumping up Hide and Move Silently (which I dont do, but is certainly possible) and using inspire competence or using invisibility can make him a good scout. Inspire competence in conjunction with sleight of hand or appraise or a conversation skill can get you things you want more easily. With a high Use Magic Device, your battle options extend to any arcane OR divine spell that can be found on a scroll or wand! The Bardic Snake will also be the major buffer for your party like any other Bard. The options are just endless with this character! You can be creative too. For instance, I recently discovered that with NWN2s dumb AI, it is a legitimate strategy to use Inspire Slowness and then have your Bard run in and draw all the aggro of a group. He can run around without getting caught while the rest of your party gets easy attacks of opportunity and sneak attacks on the chasing enemies without taking damage. If your party's health is too low to win a battle head on, this Bard tactic can be a lifesaver. Anyways, let's get down to the essentials:


Range

E. curta ranges from southern Western Australia through South Australia, and west to Victoria and New South Wales. It is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN..

Habitat

E. curtis inhabit semiarid grasslands and shrublands. They are usually found under rocks, debris, fallen vegetation, etc.

Food and Venom

The species is nocturnal. They prey upon a wide variety of rodents, lizards, amphibians, and sometimes birds and insects- an unusual variety for a small elapid. These snakes are venomous, and, like all elapids, inject their venom swiftly through fangs placed in the front of the jaw.

Reproduction

Little is known about either of these snakes' reproductive habits except that Bardicks are ovoviviparous, and that females give birth to anywhere from 3-14 young around August.

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Acanthophis hawkei (Barkly Tableland Death Adder)

Acanthophis is a genus of elapid snakes. Commonly called death adders, they are native to Australia, New Guinea and nearby islands, and are among the most venomous snakes in the world. The name of the genus derives from the Ancient Greek acanthos/ἄκανθος "spine" and ophis/ὄφις "snake", referring to the spine on the death adder's tail.

Seven species are listed by ITIS,[1] though it remains unclear how many species this genus includes, with figures ranging from 4 to 15 species being quoted

Description

Death adders are very viper-like in appearance, having a short, robust body, triangular shaped heads and small subocular scales. They also have vertical pupils and many small scales on the top of the head. Their fangs are also longer and more mobile than for most other elapids, although still far from the size seen in some of the true vipers. Despite their name and appearance, they are not vipers at all. This is a case of convergent evolution.

They normally take 2–3 years to reach adult size. Females are generally slightly larger than the males. They can also be easily distinguished from other Australian snakes because of a small, worm like lure on the end of their tail, which is used to attract prey. Most have large bands around their bodies, though the color itself is variable, depending on their locality. Colors are usually black, grey or red and yellow, but also include brown and greenish-grey

Hunting

Unlike most snakes, death adders do not actively hunt, but rather lie in ambush and draw their prey to them. When hungry, death adders bury themselves amongst the substrate. This may be leaf litter, soil or sand, depending on their environment. The only part of themselves they expose are their head and their tail, both generally very well camouflaged. The end of the tail is used for caudal luring and when wiggled is easily mistaken for a grub or worm. An unsuspecting bird or mammal will eventually notice the 'easy lunch' and attempt to seize it. Only then will the death adder move, lashing out with the quickest strike of any snake in the world.[2] A death adder can go from a strike position, to strike and envenoming their prey, and back to strike position again, in less than 0.15 of a second.

Venom

Death adders can inject on average 40–100 mg of highly toxic venom with a bite. The LD50 of the venom was reported as 0.4–0.5 mg/kg subcutaneous and it is completely neurotoxic, containing neither haemotoxins nor myotoxins, unlike most venomous snakes.

A bite from a death adder can cause paralysis which seems minor at first but can cause death from a complete respiratory shutdown in six hours. Symptoms of envenomation can be reversed through the use of death adder antivenom, or using anticholinesterases, which break the synaptic blockade by making acetylcholine more available to the parasympathetic nervous system, thus mitigating the effects of the venom.

Before antivenom was introduced, it is reported that about 50% of death adder bites were fatal. Deaths are much rarer nowadays as the anti-venom is widely available and the progression of envenomation symptoms is slow.

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Images of carpet pythons

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