Malabar Pit Viper | Chorla Ghats | Goa

[Bibhav Behera]

Malabar Pit Viper (Brown Morph) | Chorla Ghats
In summers, Pit Vipers usually move to the canopy 20m up. But one of the naturalists found this guy pretty close by and showed us in the Wildernest Campsite in Chorla Ghats itself.
Pit vipers have special heat sensing pit behind their nostril giving them their name. It is visible in this image. From the size, this is possibly a male hatched from last season (1.5ft long)

Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 100mm f/2.8
SS 1/125
f/6.3
ISO 1600

Slight crop from left to remove a branch.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice sighting. You were on the shadow side. What time of the day was this photographed? Look forward to more images including habitat ones.
Did you drive down?

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice composition. Good details. Thanks for sharing.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Nicely composed. There seems to be a bluish tinge to the scales adjacent to the ventrals- something I haven't noticed in the similar morphs from Agumbe. (Just an observation, might be mistaken.) Can't wait to see these again this season. :)

[Bibhav Behera]

Hi Sabyasachi, this was photographed in the shade around 9am. Took a bus to madgaon and a cab from there. Considering how my car had got broken into there a few years back I wasn't too keen on driving down :)

Abhishek, our plan for Agumbe is on. Lets finalise.