Snake Rituals/BRT#1

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Starting this series of Snake Rituals, that I recently shot in Gorukana Resort at BR Hills. We had just checked in and reached our cottage & were about to put down our bags. Suddenly I got call from Jade Swamy the Naturalist, he mentioned that near their exit gate two snakes are mating, he asked me to come quickly with my camera. Fortunately I had connected my camera to the 500mm so just carried my bag-pack and we literally ran.
The time was just 5pm, the rat snakes were almost on the mud road and to my bad luck the I had to shoot against the light. But these are rare and natural history moments so any conditions for shooting are welcome. At first I tried handheld and messed up, then immediately I put the bag-pack on the ground and felt flat on ground and used the bag as the support for lens. It was difficult to focus on the snakes are they swift and quick in performing their rituals.

Snakes rituals are often mistaken by most of us for snake mating. This snake ritual is nothing but a combat dance performed by males of the species. Though a friendly ritual with no over display of aggression, it is driven by instinct and used to define territory and defend mates. Its frequent and customary expression during the breeding season is proof of this encoded behavior.

The ritual was fascinating to watch and this went on for good 30 mins, until few soliga forest tribal had to pass by the same route and the snakes got disturbed and moved into the bushes.

The people of Karnataka call the rat snakes as Kere Havu, while in Marathi it is Dhaman, Kerala it is Chera, and Cherai in Tamil.

Camera Model Canon EOS 7D, 500mm
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/640
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
ISO 400
Focal length 500mm
EC - 0.7
Small crop
Bag-pack Support