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Road Rage

lawrencehylton03

Around April and May many of Hong Kong's reptiles are galavanting around in search for a mate and nesting site. It's prime time herping season and anything is a given irrespective of the weather/climate.


Coming out of a regular shooting site, I saw what resembled a snake that wasn't there a few hours prior on a busy road. Just the sheer size alone I knew it was either a Burmese Python or a King Cobra and ran towards the animal in need. In the 20 seconds from reaction to reaching the snake I was able to slow the traffic behind me but unable to slow oncoming traffic; a taxi taking the corner quickly struck this mature King Cobra, killing it instantly.


Post-mortem measurements revealed the snake to be 3.52m, thicker than a forearm, a rare size for Hong Kong's kings. A perfect individual to expand Hong Kong's king population gone just like that.


Speed limits may seem arbitrary and "against road users", but there are reasons behind these limits and it's not just for human safety, should this have been a Water Buffalo a severe incident would have occurred with likely a dead driver. At this size one would probably think of a log on the road and therefore a major hazard, how the taxi driver didn't think to slow down is beyond anyone's guess.


The body was removed into the forest to return the snake back to nature and to ensure carrion visitors would not be harmed when feeding on this snake.



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©2022 by Lawrence Hylton.

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