TerralogNEWS101
16
The Red Mountain Racer or Bamboo Ratsnake,
Oreocryptophis
(formerly
Elaphe
)
porphyraceus
isoneof themostbeautifulAsianclimbingsnakes.This
littleenergy-savingsnake– it comes frommountainous regionsanddoesn’t
requireanyheating (18-25 °C) – isbeingbred increasingly frequently.
inordinatelyquick,mind-blowingly
beautiful:
theRedMountainRacer
byRomanNeunkirchen
Schlangen
TheBambooRatsnake is veryvariable incoloration,and therearealso longitudinally-bandedspecimens.
hardly ever imported and then quickly
died.The secret of successfulmaintenance
lies in the correct treatment of theanimals
by the exporter. These mountain snakes
need to be kept cool and damp. A
prolonged stay ina lowlandexport station
– this snake is never found below 800 m
altitude in the wild – causes permanent
damage to the animal’s system. The
immune system breaks down, normally
harmless parasites proliferate massively,
and the snakedies.
The breakthrough in the maintenance of
these splendid snakes came only when
terrarium keepers in South-East Asia
seriously adopted animal maintenance
western style – ie unsentimental, non-
anthropomorphic, but technically correct
maintenance. They built cool houses the
wayweerectgreenhouses incoolerclimes,
in order to be able to provide the correct
climatic requirements for these snakesand
other creatures of the mountain forests.
And loandbehold, itworked!
The snakes portrayed here belong to the
subspecies
O.p.laticinctus
,whichoccurson
the Malayan Peninsula. Like all the other
subspecies it is a creature of permanently
moistwoodland.These snakes,whichgrow
up to 100 cm long and are very quick and
sometimes prone to bite (though, like all
Elaphe in the wide sense they are non-
venomous),areeasy to feedas they readily
t is less than30yearssince this jewelofa
snake was regarded as practically
impossible tokeep.Although thespecies is
very widespread,
occurring in six
subspecies from IndiaacrossChinaand the
Malayan Peninsula to Indonesia, it was
I
