Taeniophallus brevirostris Short-nosed Leaf-litter Snake
Madre Selva Biological Station, Loreto, PeruJanuary 14, 2014
Short-nosed Leaf-litter Snake (Taeniophallus brevirostris)
This was one of the more cooperative non-sleeping colubrids that I've ever found. I noticed it slithering across a trail in the afternoon. After a momentary pause in which I determined that it was neither a mysteriously day-active coral snake nor a viper, I grabbed it before it could disappear. I greatly prefer photos taken in the animal's natural habitat, so I tried to get it to pose for me on the trail before I brought it back to camp for everyone else to admire. I cupped my hand over it for about twenty seconds, after which it held perfectly still in a somewhat awkward bunched-up position. I got a few photos like that, then used a little twig to spread it out into a more natural-looking pose. No problem, it held perfectly still like that. Then I used the little twig to raise its head a little bit. No problem, it held perfectly still like that as I took multi-second exposures in the dark forest. If only all snakes were this cooperative!

Here is a complete list of the herps I saw in the wild on my 2014 MT Amazon Expeditions trip.

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