By Hafiz Jasri
Disgusting. Word that can defined the limbless creature that always being caught breaking into human settlement. Unisel Bestari Jaya is located in the middle of palm plantation and were also surrounded by the numerous swarm that is basically the best habitat for this creature, snakes!. Human and the snakes often encountered each other and in most of the encounter, It always make both side left with a traumatic phobia. It is either the snakes will be killed or the man will be bitten or worse; death.
The main factors that have increased this problems is, they lost their habitat due to the human settlement and land clearance for cultivation. Therefore, they ended up in human settlement after they failed to find a new home. Snakes are very sensitive to the human presence that they will tried to avoid any encounter but sometimes, they failed to evade and felt threaten by human that make them to behave in a certain behaviour.
There are estimated 159 species of snakes in Malaysia and most of them are land snakes while a small percent of it which is 21 species live in the ocean. Their venom can be divided into several types which is Neurotoxin that will attack the nerve (can caused paralysis), Hemotoxin that basically will crushed blood cell, Sytotoxin that will attack body cells (Caused amputation of body part) and Miotoxin that will make our muscle numbed.
Do not worry, not all of them can be found easily. There is a small chances to find a dangerous one and some of the snakes that always can be found does not have the venom or mildly-venom that their venom only worked to their prey and if the human are allergic to the venom, it will only caused a fever due to the effects. Snakes are often found accordance to their habitat. Here we will list top five snakes that the students of Unisel Bestari Jaya might encountered in the institute area.
We started with non-dangerous snakes which is Puff Faced Water Snake or Homalopsis Buccata, the stripped snakes looks like a decorated pipe. The pattern found on the snakes is to make the snakes to easily camouflage into the surrounding to avoid prey. Usually what came into our mind, snakes eat rats. But not for this species, this snakes only eat fish for its diet. They also live inside a water and swarm surrounding Unisel is the best habitat for them. They were also not aggressive and will not attack human being when both of them came in contact.
Reticulated Python Python Reticulatus are the world’s longest snakes and longest reptiles and is one of the heaviest snakes that populated most in the South East Asia. It can be found in the smallest baby size to the biggest adult size in Bestari Jaya. It always found break into human settlements to eat on their livestock animal such as chicken and ducks. Since it is hard for them to hunt for preys, they hunt for the caged animal instead. It is the easiest way for them to find foods. Although it do not have venom, wild Retics are very dangerous due to their aggressiveness to defend themselves. They have thousands of sharp teeth facing inwards of its mouth to have a better grip of their prey. They can ripped open human skins easily.
Midly-Venom snakes may not dangerous for human being. But some of them are very aggressive. For Copperhead Racer or Coelognathus Radiatus the aggressiveness is only an act. Act to chase away their threat. They will bend its body and widen it horizontally to make them looks bigger. But, the snakes are not deadly for human. They can only caused a minor wound. If they found that their bites is not effective to chase out the prey, they will act dead. Their body will go numb without moving and until they felt the threat are gone, they will run away. The perfect actor to win an Oscar.
Next is Monocled Cobra and Spitting Cobra which is Naja Koutia and Naja Sumatrana. Both have the same features but the spitting does not have the mark behind their heads and came in two colour which is black and gold according to the region of the distribution. In Selangor, most of them are black in colour. Both of them is neurotoxin that can caused death if not treated immediately. The spitting Cobras can spit its venom through its fang and will aim the eyes of its prey. This are the famous types of snakes in Malaysia and their local’s name is “Ular Tedung Senduk”.
But most of them cannot defeat the royal of the snakes. The King Cobra or Ophiophagus Hannah. Although its name is cobra, it is different species from the Cobra and spitting cobra. It got its name as the King is due to their size. It is the biggest among the cobras and it was used by the human as the natural way to annihilate others snakes species as their main menu is the snakes itself. Usually, they will hunt for others smaller snakes such as the copperhead racer and it is one of their favourite meal. Their bit can caused one’s nerve to be damaged. Body parts may be amputated to remove the damaged part.
In the cultivation area, Pit Viper or Crotalinea oddly be found in the area. It is easy to distinguish from other snakes since the viper’s head is in triangle’s shape and some of them are in a vibrant light colour. They might seems passive and not going to attacks you at first but actually, they are prepared an all out guerrilla to attacks you. This is why they got their own nicknames which is “Ular Kapak Bodah”. It named stupid, but its bites is super deadly. Their venom will attack its prey blood circulations and make the blood vessels to coagulated. Beauty is deceiving. Yes. Their colour might attract people to touch them without knowing the effect of their actions.
Most of the venomous snakes species already have the antivenin. It is the cure for the effects although several other side effect cannot be avoided. Some of the victims might be amputated. As a civilians, the only thing we can do is to study about them. If you happened to be bitten by the snakes, remembered the feature of the snakes to ease the doctor to decides what antivenin they should use. If wrong antivenin is being used, it may caused the effect to worsen. By studying the species of the snakes, people can preserved the variety of the serpents.
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