From the 17th of may till the 25th of may I went on a herpetological trip to Israël, together with my Dutch amigo Gert Jan Verspui. Our target was to see and photograph many species as possible, including some venomous snakes. In Israël we also got some company and help from other herpetologist from the United States of America, Denmark and Israël.
In Israël two continents come together, the Middle East and Africa, this in combination with a high variation of landscapes and different climates makes that Israël has a very high diversity in herpetofauna species, especially reptiles. In total about 100 species can be seen throughout the country. During our trip we managed to see 55 herpetofauna species.
Gert Jan Verspui handling an Arabian Horned Viper © Gert Jan Verspui
To catch and photograph also the venomous snakes I brought my Venom Defender Gloves and also a M1 Collapsible Snake Tong 40”. Already on our first full day we needed both tools. While checking out ancient waterholes for snakes and reptiles that fall in, I saw a snake falling in a waterhole that contained water (most of the time these are dried up). It turned out to be a big Black Desert Cobra (Walterinnesia aegyptia). To dangerous to climb in, we devised a way to get the cobra out. The combination of Venom Defender Gloves and the Snake tong saved the life of the cobra en made us very happy!
Gert Jan Verspui safely takes the Black Desert Cobra out of the ancient waterhole with the snaketong in combination with the Venom Defender Gloves © Dan Rosenberg
With the help of the Venom Defender Gloves we also successfully caught venomous snakes like the Lebanon Viper (Montivipera bornmuelleri), Palestine Viper (Daboia palaestinae), Palestine Saw-scaled Viper (Echis coloratus), Sahara Sand Viper (Cerastes vipera), Desert Horned Viper (Cerastes cerastes) and the Arabian Horned Viper (Cerastes gasperettii).
Sjuul Verhaegh using the Venom Defender Gloves for handling a Black Desert Cobra © Sjuul Verhaegh
For the curious people that want to see the pictures that are made and read more about our herping trip, I strongly advice to read Gert Jan’s report of our trip. You can find the report on the link below:
http://gjv-natureview.jimdo.com/trip-reports/trips-outside-europe/israel-05-2014/
With kind regards,
Sjuul Verhaegh
(The Netherlands)
Photographs courtesy of Sjuul Verhaegh, Gert Jan Verspui and Dan Rosenberg
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Disclaimer; We at Snake Professional & 1-2-1 (Animal Handling) Products do NOT advise this method of handling and doing so is at the handlers own risk!