Some of the Wildlife Rescue Units recent snake rescues have been by far the coolest in over a decade of rescues. A Leith’s sand snake rarely sighted before in Delhi was rescued late afternoon by the Wildlife SOS Rescue Unit, from a 25 foot long garden pipe by WSOS volunteer. In order to effectively restrain the snake which is an extremely fast snake, the pipe had to be blocked at one end and after an extremely long and patient wait of over half an hour, when the snake emerged slowly and cautiously from one end of the pipe it was gently guided into a snake bag. WSOS Rescue Unit Team members sensitized the callers about snakes to ensure they would never allow a snake to be killed in their presence.
The Leith’s sand snakeis a beautiful striped snake with a ribbon like appearance because of which it is also known as “fita saanp†in the local hindi dialect. This non venomous beautiful snake is diurnal in nature with a prey preference of lizards, insects, small rodents and is found in the stony and sandy arid regions of India and the deserts of Pakistan.
In another interesting snake rescue a rarely sighted Russell’s Kukri snake (Oligodon taeniolata), was rescued by Wildlife S.O.S. rescue team from inside a Delhi home. Kukri snakes are called so because of the shape of their rear fangs which are kukri shaped. As this snake is predominately an egg eating snake, the fangs help in breaking egg shells.
Abhishek Narayanan “ Wildlife Rescue Helpline Coordinator said ”It is incredible that such rare species of snakes rarely seen in Delhi have been rescued thus clearly indicating that Delhi is still able to support such biodiversity”
Sanjay Acharya, Senior Wildlife Rescue Unit Team Member said, ”Wildlife SOS is working to increase awareness about these misunderstood creatures and we hope this will help us prevent indiscriminate massacre of these beautiful reptiles”
The Wildlife SOS Helpline no +91 9871963535 is a 24 hour manned helpline that runs purely on donations.
