Figment the Imaginary Boa

The Sahara sand viper (Cerastes vipera), is a small, venomous viper endemic to the deserts of North Africa and the Sinai Peninsula and it has a very special skill. It can hide itself by burying itself in the sand. They do this in order to wait for prey. They wiggle their tails to attract a potential meal and then lunge out from under the sand to chomp them.

Photographer Zac Herr had the brilliant idea of giving a captive-bred Sahara sand viper the opportunity to show off its special skill in a pool full of rainbow sprinkles instead of sand. pacinthesink provided the snek and jdrrising recorded the results:

A post shared by Josh (@jdrrising) on Nov 5, 2017 at 7:19am PST

And Zac Herr photographed the sneaky snek after it was done:

“The best part of this picture is that the snake has no idea how comical it is.“

Prints of these awesome sprinkle viper photos are currently available via Zac Herr’s online shop.

Video by jdrrising, photos by Zac Herr

Thank you! Sunny IS adorable!

Now about keeping a burm.

1. Make sure you have the required space, resources (this includes a qualified vet within driving distance), and a reasonable amount of certainty that you’ll continue being able to keep the snake. If you anticipate any large moves, or other big life changes, don’t get the snake.

2. Make sure you have at least one other person in the house who can help you if things go pear-shaped. Snakes are not the brightest, and mistakes happen. Better have someone on hand than… you get the idea.

3. The snake can live upwards of 20 years. Are you prepared to care for it for its entire life? Zoos and museums have more than enough of unwanted burms. Most times, rehoming such an animal will take 6 months or longer, if at all. Don’t add to the pile of unwanted snakes.

3a. Reasons people have to re-home their snakes (any size): moving, going to college, deploying overseas, having a baby, partner hates snakes, jobless moving back in with parents who don’t want a snake in the house, new job takes too much time to care for a pet, snake got too big, snake got sick and too expensive to treat. Again, you get the idea. A lot of these things are unanticipated, and I get that, but think of a plan B, C, and D for such an event.

4. Be realistic with yourself. “But I wanna” is a fine argument for right now, but the animal will suffer if you can’t care for it down the road.

5. Okay, you’ve gone through this list and went “Sure, I can do this” – prepare everything ahead of time: cage, food, the whole nine. Test the setup before you put the snake in there. Run it for a couple of weeks and see if the numbers are stable and in range.

6. When you get the snake, work with it. Often and on regular basis. Get that snake used to handling and to your presence, as well as the backup handler’s. You both need to be equally comfortable handling the snake, moving it during cleaning, putting it back in the cage, that sort of thing.

In summary, all snakes a a big responsibility, and giant snakes are tenfold that. Don’t take this lightly. But if you commit to such a pet knowingly, you’ll find keeping them very rewarding.