The Knot | Malabar Pit Viper | Agumbe

[Bibhav Behera]

This is the same Malabar Pit Viper - green morph that I had posted earlier. While clicking I noticed it had its tail wrapped in a knot. This behaviour is to avoid the snake accidentally falling off the tree. They are known to stay in the same spot for weeks altogether if undisturbed.

The idea behind this image was to keep the head out of focus yet visible faintly. The 5.6 aperture worked best for it.

Canon EOS 7D, 300 mm f/4L IS, 600ex-rt Speedlite Flash Used
SS 1/125
f/5.6
ISO 1600

[Sabyasachi Patra]

With the lower shutter speed it is not possible to use a narrow aperture and get both the tail as well as head without using a tripod and especially since you were using the 300mm. I would have liked it a bit wider and with more depth of field. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Prajwal J Ullal]

Amazing snap and great info about the behaviour. Thanks for sharing

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Nicely done. A clever way to retain attention on the tail while simultaneously giving an idea of what animal it is :). I would have liked to see a shot from a wide angle lens as well (with a wider composition and inherently greater DoF).
The prehensile tail is a characteristic feature of the Trimeresurus snakes (arboreal Asian pit vipers).

[Roopak Gangadharan]

nice. maybe it also helps in striking out at prey like an uncoiled spring and still retain a grip on the branch.

TFS
Roopak