Out hunting rat snakes, a man nearly grabbed a creature more dangerous than a king cobra
After a rainstorm, a man shone his flashlight into a patch of dense vegetation in search of the Indochinese rat snake (scientific name: Ptyas korros), known in Vietnamese as rắn ráo or rắn lải. It is a docile, nonvenomous snake with relatively large eyes.
Indochinese rat snakes are excellent swimmers and climbers. They forage during the day and sleep on tree branches at night, and as long as they are handled gently, they will not bite people. Note that many snake species in Vietnam are protected, and hunting, trading or consuming protected wild species is illegal in Vietnam. While catching them, however, the man came across a highly venomous snake that looks quite similar to the rat snake.
He said that when he was new to the job, he often grabbed red-necked keelbacks (scientific name: Rhabdophis subminiatus) by mistake. This snake has large eyes and looks a lot like the rat snake, except for its more vivid patterning and, above all, its red neck.
The red-necked keelback closely resembles the Indochinese rat snake. (Photo: Thành Luân)
In the dark, though, telling the two species apart is not easy, and inexperienced catchers can easily pick up the wrong one. The red-necked keelback is often mistaken for a harmless snake because not everyone it bites ends up in danger.
That is because its fangs sit at the back of the mouth rather than at the front, as in other venomous snakes. As a result, venom is only truly injected into a victim when the snake bites somewhere it can clamp its whole jaw around, such as a finger or the web between the thumb and index finger...
Although its venom is not as potent as that of the many-banded krait or the king cobra, in terms of overall danger, the red-necked keelback can be considered one of the most dangerous snakes in Vietnam and in the other countries where it is found.
The red-necked keelback is rear-fanged. (Photo: Thành Luân)
Red-necked keelback venom causes victims to bleed uncontrollably, and no specific antivenom for this species is currently available in Vietnam (whereas common venomous snakes such as the king cobra, banded krait, many-banded krait and pit vipers all have antivenoms and treatment protocols).
The venom causes very dangerous widespread bleeding throughout the body and, in severe cases, can trigger a brain hemorrhage (against which even blood filtration is ineffective), leading to death.
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