JPG Magazine: Photos: "Into the Eyes of a Silent Predator" by Tiberiu Sahlean

Into the Eyes of a Silent Predator

By Tiberiu Sahlean

On 9 April 2008

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Zamenis longissimus - Aesculapian rat snake

This species name comes from its slender body, and it translates into "the longest". This is because when people saw this snake it looked as if it had no end, because of the slender body, so they thought it was extremely large.
This snake is considered the symbol of pharmacology and medicine, as its common name suggests, "Aesculapian", from Aesculap's Rod . It is represented coiled around a Rod in every drug store and on every pharmacology book, magazine, etc, the rod and the snake being the symbols for medicine and pharmacology.
The Aesculapian rat snake is an arborial species, found in most European forests, except the northern, cold ones. It is quite a large species growing to about 2 meters in length.
As a juvenile its main diet consists of lizards, but as an adult it feeds on rodents. It is a constrictor, just like the four lined snake or the boas and pythons.Its juvenile coloration differs from that of an adult. The one in the picture is a juvenile. The adult coloration is more uniform, and spans from black to dark brown and even green individuals have been found.
Mating takes place in May and the female lays the eggs in June or July. The hatchlings can be found at the end of August or during September.
Getting back to the ancients, it is said that during hot summers the roman women used to catch Aesculapian snakes and four lined snake and put them around the neck to cool down.
It is a non-venomous snake that kills by constriction and it bites when caught. Despite this, the Aesculapian rat snake is one of the shiest and hard to find species of snakes in Europe. In fact, you don't go looking for one of these animals, you stumble upon one, sometimes evn walk over it without knowing it.

In the Trip to Hagieni, Constanta, Romania - Herpetologists style!!! photo essay.

31 Responses

On 9 April 2008 Desi J. gave props:
nice shot! you got my vote!
On 9 April 2008 serge rolland said:
Mine too!
On 9 April 2008 Iso gave props:
Great DOF, lovely shot !
On 9 April 2008 Juan Paolo Garcia gave props:
very very nice shot!
On 9 April 2008 Belinda Berglof said:
Great dof! I love this!
On 9 April 2008 Misko Kordic gave props:
great capture got my yeah
On 9 April 2008 Courtney Harper gave props:
Nice photo, I would be too freaked out.
On 10 April 2008 * Jeff Boucher said:
Got my vote. great shot.
On 10 April 2008 Antonio Stella said:
Great capture. Got my vote.
Ciao
Antonio
On 10 April 2008 Amber Gregory gave props:
fantastic! got my vote--i have a snake in the running too, but mine is a bit smaller. and greener. ;-)
On 10 April 2008 Nelson Campbell gave props:
Wonderful shot and interesting info! My vote.
On 10 April 2008 danny monster said:
great close up snake shot +v
On 10 April 2008 .Rich Silva said:
Awsome...Great control of the focus and depth of field. Great Job!
On 10 April 2008 Sheree Quenby gave props:
I vote yes!
On 11 April 2008 Alexandru Strugariu said:
Great picute and notes ! ;)
You got my vote
Thanks for sharing,
Alex
On 11 April 2008 Mario Scattoloni gave props:
Perfect in every sense. Great image.
On 11 April 2008 Jonathan Epp gave props:
Great Photo! It's a Yeah for me!
On 11 April 2008 Dennis Blauer added a link:
another great creature (www.jpgmag.com)
On 11 April 2008 Lucinda Holcroft gave props:
Wow, great shot!
On 11 April 2008 Aniket Chakrabarty said:
Just stunning and awesome.
The description added more flavor to the shot.
Ani
On 11 April 2008 Olivier Vin gave props:
wow ! great DOP :p
On 17 April 2008 Brian Hagy gave props:
Cool shot. Love the DOP!
On 19 April 2008 Aimee Goggins said:
Awesome shot!
On 23 April 2008 Cosmin Anghel gave props:
Foarte tare!!!!
On 24 April 2008 jesse baker added a link:
here is a black and white example of a similar pose... gotta love those little guys! especially the wild ones~ (jpgmag.com)
On 2 May 2008 Cathy Cale gave props:
Terrific
On 8 May 2008 Jessica Kuligowski gave props:
Great composition!
On 15 May 2008 Slava Pekarsky said:
great catching the moment!
On 26 May 2008 !!Mary!! Martin Azabal said:
Got my vote!.
On 29 May 2008 Michael Svolos said:
Yeah, it rocks!! ;)
On 14 June 2008 Yasmina Baggili gave props:
Totally amazing shot!!!!