Seeing a snake in the wild in Singapore is not that easy. Most will slither away, spooked by the sounds of your footsteps, movement and vibrations on the forest floor. Not many snakes hunt in the day time. Some like the Pit Vipers stay motionless in the undergrowth and wait for their prey to come to them.
MacRitchie end of the shady Lornie Trail.
Bronzebacks are diurnal and move around the forest floor looking for lizards and frogs. I was lucky to come across this Kopstein’s Bronzeback, Dendrelaphis kopsteini, along the Lornie Trail on 11 June 2023 stalking a Green-crested Lizard, Bronchocela cristatella. Here are a series of photographs of its successful catch. It is survival of the deadliest!
(Unpleasant images. If you are squeamish, stop and don’t scroll! )
Prey in sight. Poised to strike.One strike, one kill! The Kopstein’s Bronzeback is not venomous, but it managed to paralyze the Green-crested Lizard instantly with one bite.It quickly pulls the lizard up from the forest floor away from other would be predators.The lizard is still alive, the eyes are still open, but it is helpless and did not put up a struggle.The powerful jaws were able to hold on to the lizard while it slowly pulled the lizard up. The incredible strength of its muscles and backbone to be able to lift a lizard half of its body weight,can be seen in this photo.Now it got some support from the horizontal twig for it to regain some of its strength, but is still able to hold on to the lizard by its teeth.A few more centimeters to get the lizard wedged in between the fork of the branches. The bornzeback bit into the lizard’s neck. Then a final twist of the neck to make sure it is dead. It then hung the lizard to a fork and began the slow process of swallowing the lizard.
Reference: Nick Baker & Kelvin Lim. Wild Animals of Singapore. 2008.
Wild Asia 