"Swameeee, Swameeee!!” I called in panic as I jumped and skipped around the front porch of our cottage at Navilu Kaadu one morning.
I had unwittingly turned over a cardboard carton and out slithered a blur of shiny, stringy reptiles. It was a case of Pandora’s box alright! Foot-long reddish-brown snakelets were all over the porch looking for escape routes. Even in the mayhem, I couldn’t help but marvel at their beauty. By then, my hollering had summoned a flustered Swamy, Navilu Kaadu’s caretaker at the time, to the site of the cacophony.
“Saisbeda, odisu!” “Chase them out, don’t kill!” I relayed my customary ‘cease and desist’ instruction around snakes at Navilu Kaadu.
Swamy coaxed the six or seven juvenile snakes out of our yard unharmed and into the vegetation beyond. The mêlée was a teaching moment to keep our yard clear of objects that could appear inviting to house-hunting wild creatures.
The little snakes were juvenile Indian wolf snakes (Lycodon aulicus), a quick-tempered species that can inflict a nasty puncture if meddled with. Their mum must have laid eggs in the dark, warm recesses of the carton.
We have so far coexisted without incident, alongside a thriving venomous and non-venomous serpent populace on weedy, wild Navilu Kaadu. And when our paths cross, we give each other a wide berth and wait for the other to pass.
When on the farm, we exercise plenty of caution and walk around with gum boots. Our farmhands, however, look down their noses at what they perceive as abominations. And so, all half a dozen gum boots are lying around gathering dust, other than the ones we use.
Indian wolf snakes aka common wolf snakes are endemic to the Indian subcontinent. They belong to Colubridae, a snake family comprised mostly of non-venomous species characterised by large teeth in both jaws. These snakes get their name from their enlarged fang-like front teeth that give them snouts not unlike a canine’s muzzle.
Like many Colubrids, wolf snakes possess true fangs near the back of their mouth, which they use to inject venom into their prey. However, herpetologists suggest that the Indian wolf snake is not particularly dangerous to humans (Romulus et al., 2004).
Indian wolf snakes are adept at camouflage and blend into their surroundings. They are often mistaken for the common krait, one of the big four venomous snake species in India along with the Russell’s viper, the Indian cobra, and the Indian saw-scaled viper. Scientists once suspected that the Indian wolf snake’s resemblance to the common krait could be a case of Batesian mimicry, where a harmless species evolved to resemble a dangerous species to deter predators common to both species.
I am unsure though, if this mimicry is a good thing for the wolf snakes because they often meet a cruel fate at the hands of humans who take them for the deadly krait. If one observes the wolf snake carefully, the chiselled angular head, narrow neck, and nifty cream-coloured bands starting at the neck and fading towards the tail-end are among a few markers to tell it apart from the common krait, which has a flat head and a barely noticeable neck. Common kraits do not have bands on the anterior. They keep it subtle with thin, white or cream bands towards the tail.
Adult wolf snakes wear shades of deep grey or reddish-brown and may have cream patches, but the collar band is ever-present. These slender snakes grow to around three to four feet, with the females being larger. Wolf snake pairs mate in the summer. The females lay between 4 and 11 eggs. The young hatch in the post-monsoon months between September and October.
Indian wolf snakes feed on lizards, frogs, rodents and small birds. Their enlarged anterior fangs and blade-like posterior fangs are built to pierce and firmly grasp hard-bodied skinks, a meal they relish. They provide valuable ecosystem services by keeping their prey numbers in check. These canny snakes are known to play dead to escape predators and trap prey.
Wolf snakes are nocturnal, terrestrial, semi-arboreal and fossorial (burrowing). They scale trees and are able swimmers to boot. Ophiologists consider them among the faster snake species, clocking 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) an hour. If there ever were to be an Ironman triathlon equivalent in the serpent realm, the wolf snake would doubtlessly be Ironsnake!
Incidentally, July 16 is celebrated as World Snake Day — a reminder that snakes too have their rightful place in forests, farmlands and even in our swelling cities.
Rooting for Nature is a monthly column on an off-kilter urban family’s trysts with nature on a natural farm.
(The author chipped away at a software marketing career before shifting gears to sustainable entrepreneurship and natural farming. She posts as @ramyacoushik on Instagram. Reach her at bluejaydiaries@gmail.com)