Blue Pit Viper - tiamet or tiamot?

Heya,

I saw a show on Animal Planet where a father/son team went into the jungle and up a mountain and found a rare "blue pit viper" that they called a "tiamet or tiamot", etc.

I cant find anything about this rare snake that they said is a new species. Does anyone know anything about this?

Tiamat is a mythological reference. She is the mother of all dragons. Kind of a pretentious thing to call a snake. Was the show serious? Don't have a clue about the viper though.

I couldnt find it on Animal Planet, so I did a goodle search and found the tv shows page on AP, but the shows page had been taken down already, I did however find the page still alive in googles cache!!! Here is the URL of the cached page:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:W...ue+viper&hl=en

And here is a copy/paste of what the page says about the show:

"APL — Reptile Kings: Search for the Lost Viper
Reptile Kings: Search for the Lost Viper

Scour the virgin rainforests of Malaysia with father-son herpetologist team Lee and Jesse Grismer as they wrestle lizards, fend off leeches, and encounter numerous snake species on a back-break, hair-raising trek to find the elusive blue pit viper.
tv :: g
cc :: unavailable"

And it says the show aired on these dates:

On Air (et):
DEC 17 2005
@ 10:00 PM

DEC 18 2005
@ 01:00 AM

DEC 18 2005
@ 05:00 AM

DEC 18 2005
@ 02:00 PM

My wife's grandfather told me a story about a snake he saw in Vietnam near the Cambodia border. He was walking along when a blue snake slithered right in fron of him and his men. He was with two linguist that spoke Vietnamese, they asked the locals about the snake. The locals called the snake an "Eep Snake" basically, by the time you said "eep" after it bit you, you were dead.

He swears it was a very blue colored snake and would like to know more about it. Any ideas?

I found a page that mentions a Malaysian and Green Viper, and a Blue Temple Viper, the AP show said the blue pit viper (only found high in the mountain tops of Malaysia) was indeed a new species of pit viper... so maybe its closely related to the green and/or Malaysian pit viper???

http://www.expat.or.id/medical/poisonoussnakes.html

Malayan Pit Viper -- Ular Tanah
Green Pit Viper -- Ulat Bankai Laut or Ular Hijau Ekor Mira

Both the Malayan Pit Viper and the Green Pit Viper are found around Jakarta. Each has a distinctive triangular head shape, stocky body, and a length of about 80 cm. Each has the ability to jump with great force when attacking. The Malayan Pit Viper is reddish brown with triangular markings on his sides and the Green Pit Viper is bright green with a distinct red tail. The Malayan Pit Viper rattles with his tail before striking as a warning. Vipers are nocturnal and can be easily be avoided by staying away from fields and rocky areas. The Hemotoxic bite causes immediate pain, swelling, bleeding, and tissue damage.


Blue Temple Viper

A tree snake whose bite is haematotoxic and indeed very dangerous. The affected limb of snake bite victim must be completely immobilized and a stretch bandage should be applied. The victim then needs to be transferred to the nearest hospital or emergency room for observation of signs of invenemation. We do not recommend to use antivenin, unless the patient is developing symptoms of invenemation, since most snake bites do not inject significant amounts of venom during a bite.

Manipulation of the wound, suction, squeezing, massage, cutting the skin or application of ointments or remedies only increases the absorption of the venom, and should never be attempted. A polyvalent antivenom is available at the International SOS clinics in Bali and Jakarta.

---

I wonder if the blue Malaysian pit viper is related to the rare blue Trimeresurus flavomaculatus of the Phillipines???

http://www.zoo.ru/moscow/e_38.htm

"13. A unique blue form of the rare (Philippine Pit Viper?) (Trimeresurus flavomaculatus), born at the Moscow Zoo in 2001."

http://www.venomousreptiles.org/forums/Experts/14503

I found people discussing the AP show on this venomous reptile forum, URL above.

heh, too bad there is no edit buttons on this forum LoL, I would have condensed all of this into one post!

http://community.discovery.com/eve/u.../670105295/p/1

On that link they are discussing the show about the blue pit viper, here is a post from the discussion where this guy says what the snake is:

"antiaustin
Member
Registered: 10-18-04

Posted 03-14-05 01:12 PM Report This Post

They were off the coast of Malaysia, on the island of Tioman. They were searching for the Tioman Trimeresurus, "which is part of the T. popeiorum group (genus Popeia according to Malhotra & Thorpe (2004)). Vogel et al (2004) included it in their T. fucatus." W. Wuster...

Lee Grismer's group was trying to determine if the "Tioman Viper" was another species of the Trimeresurus genus. Some may say that it's too close to a T. popeiorum to be a seperate species.

I found the way they shook the whip snake down off the tree pretty bad, and something I'd expect Stevens to do. But, I really liked the way they went after a snake that is truly gorgeous, and not the largest, meanest, most aggressive or most venomous. A good show overall."

found this post at repticzone.com's forums:

"#357952

Hammer
View Profile



Message To: RePtiLOVER In reference to Message Id: 357810


Tioman pit viper

I asked the man who knows "everything" about snakes, the man himself, Dr Wuster, and he told me this a few months ago. I saw it as a pope viper and he confirmed it:

The Tioman Trimeresurus is definitely part of the T. popeiorum group (genus Popeia according to Malhotra & Thorpe (2004)). Vogel et al (2004) included it intheir T. fucatus.

Lee Grismer’s group has been working on the herpetofauna of Pulau Tioman for a while. He is fairly well known for advocating recognition of mildly differentiated island forms as different species, something not everyone agrees with (this is not intended as a criticism, different systematists do follow different philosophies when it comes to defining species), so I am not surprised that he may wish to describe the Tioman taxon as something new. "

Originally Posted by kount zero-posting quote from another forum

.I found the way they shook the whip snake down off the tree pretty bad, and something I'd expect Stevens to do.

I agree, also, on one of the tiny surrounding islands they were searching they showed them going after some skinks, and they were tearing up the rocks and just letting the rocks fall all over, and even down the side (into the water?). As someone who has tried to leave the areas I've herped, in the same condition they were in when I arrived I found it a little careless, and irresponsible. Not a treehugger by any means, but I like to leave habitats as undisturbed as possible. On another note; Dr Grismer is probably the foremost authority on Baja Herps, and I highly recommend his book Amphibians and Reptiles of Baja California, Including Its Pacific Islands and the Islands in the Sea of Cortés if you are into field herping and such of the american southwest.