‘I am Nag,’ said the cobra; ‘look, and be afraid!’….But at the bottom of his cold heart, he was afraid. -Kipling It was our last full herping day in Thailand, and so far all of our venomous snakes had been pit vipers (Trimeresurus vogeli), at rest on tree branches over our heads. This last day we were at Kaeng Krachan National Park, a few hours southwest of Bangkok, and as it was hot and dry we were driving from water hole to water hole, looking for herps out to get a drink or a meal. The water holes, vaguely square or lozenge-shaped, were man-made, and dug for the park’s elephants and other charismatic wildlife. The abrupt edges of the water…
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“There ain’t much between the Pole and South Dakota, and barb wire won’t stop the wind…” So goes a pretty good song by James McMurtry, but I beg to differ with him – there’s a whole bunch of North Dakota in the way, to say nothing of Manitoba. I was up that way earlier this year with friends Don and Chris, and despite the long drive over roads as straight as a frozen rope, it’s a beautiful part of the country, with some interesting herps and other fauna. If you keep driving west across the state, eventually you’ll run into the badlands country, and the Roosevelt National Grasslands. We visited both the northern and southern units of the grasslands, one…
