Sea snake surprises
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
So, we’ve had another episode of BBC’s new big budget wildlife series Life. And while the topic this week was reptiles and amphibians – creatures not famous for their love of the sea – there was still an ocean treat in store.
Sea snakes. Or sea kraits to be precise (a sub-group of the sea snakes).
Olive green sea snake on the Great Barrier Reef. Photo by Peter Nangle.
They are quite awesome creatures to encounter underwater and despite being venomous are not especially dangerous but rather placid and inquisitive. And they are stunning when they swim in s-shaped undulations up towards the sea surface to grab a breath.
Sea krait grabbing a breath. Photo by Scubageek.
And once again, the BBC have turned out a sea snake fact I didn’t know (there was another in Planet Earth a few years ago which I’ll tell you about below). It turns out there are some sea snakes that have to lay their eggs on land.
But unlike those other great ocean reptiles – the sea turtles – sea snakes don’t crawl up a beach to lay their eggs in a vulnerable nest in the sand.
The female sea krait that appears in this episode of Life has a very cunning plan.
She was filmed in achingly clear waters off the South Pacific island of Nuie, a tiny outcrop over two thousand kms north east of New Zealand, in between Tonga and Samoa. Who wouldn’t have wanted to go on that film shoot?
Although, after watching a tangled knot of midwater copulation, things get a little scary when the female snake swims off into an underwater cave. I’ve never been a fan of confined spaces and putting those spaces underwater is even worse.
There she finds a pocket of protected air, the perfect place to leave her eggs. The film of this sparkling cave is gorgeous. Have a watch – I think this clip can be watched outside the UK. It looks like something straight out of a Harry Potter book.
But the question is, if only the sea kraits have to lay their eggs on land, what do all the other sea snakes do?
Yellow lipped sea krait. Photo by Budak.
Well, they don’t lay eggs at all.
Most sea snakes give birth to live young which emerge fully formed and ready for life in the sea.
And if you fancy some more amazing sea snake footage, check out the Shallow Seas episode of the BBC’s Planet Earth series (I can’t find a clip online of this one so you’ll have to hunt down the DVD or a repeat on TV). There is a mind blowing scene from an Indonesian coral reef where hundreds of sea snakes (not so good for ophidiophobes) go hunting, escorted by a shoal of trevally. I’ve never heard of anything like this massive multi-species hunting expedition, let alone seen it myself!
So, did I like the second episode of BBC’s Life?
For the sea snake sequence yes, definitely. For the rest of it? There were certainly some cool critters in there although I’m sure some of the footage we already saw on the Life in Cold Blood series. And I’m not quite sure how the programme as a whole hung together.
But I will certainly keep watching.
In detail:
- Sea snakes are reptiles in the family Hydrophiidae.
- Sea kraits are members of that family in the genus Laticauda.
- Sea snakes live in warm tropical seas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
- The Caribbean Sea and west Atlantic Ocean are sea snake free.
- Most adult sea snakes grow to about 1 to 1.5m long.
- They have salt glands under and around their tongues to help remove the excess salt they accidentally swallow while living in the sea.
So, we’ve had another episode of BBC’s new big budget wildlife series Life. And while the topic this week was reptiles and amphibians – creatures not famous for their love of the sea – there was still an ocean treat in store.
Sea snakes. Or sea kraits to be precise (a sub-group of the sea snakes).
Olive green sea snake on the Great Barrier Reef. Photo by Peter Nangle.
They are quite awesome creatures to encounter underwater and despite being venomous are not especially dangerous but rather placid and inquisitive. And they are stunning when they swim in s-shaped undulations up towards the sea surface to grab a breath.
Sea krait grabbing a breath. Photo by Scubageek.
And once again, the BBC have turned out a sea snake fact I didn’t know (there was another in Planet Earth a few years ago which I’ll tell you about below). It turns out there are some sea snakes that have to lay their eggs on land.
But unlike those other great ocean reptiles – the sea turtles – sea snakes don’t crawl up a beach to lay their eggs in a vulnerable nest in the sand.
The female sea krait that appears in this episode of Life has a very cunning plan.
She was filmed in achingly clear waters off the South Pacific island of Nuie, a tiny outcrop over two thousand kms north east of New Zealand, in between Tonga and Samoa. Who wouldn’t have wanted to go on that film shoot?
Although, after watching a tangled knot of midwater copulation, things get a little scary when the female snake swims off into an underwater cave. I’ve never been a fan of confined spaces and putting those spaces underwater is even worse.
There she finds a pocket of protected air, the perfect place to leave her eggs. The film of this sparkling cave is gorgeous. Have a watch – I think this clip can be watched outside the UK. It looks like something straight out of a Harry Potter book.
But the question is, if only the sea kraits have to lay their eggs on land, what do all the other sea snakes do?
Yellow lipped sea krait. Photo by Budak.
Well, they don’t lay eggs at all.
Most sea snakes give birth to live young which emerge fully formed and ready for life in the sea.
And if you fancy some more amazing sea snake footage, check out the Shallow Seas episode of the BBC’s Planet Earth series (I can’t find a clip online of this one so you’ll have to hunt down the DVD or a repeat on TV). There is a mind blowing scene from an Indonesian coral reef where hundreds of sea snakes (not so good for ophidiophobes) go hunting, escorted by a shoal of trevally. I’ve never heard of anything like this massive multi-species hunting expedition, let alone seen it myself!
So, did I like the second episode of BBC’s Life?
For the sea snake sequence yes, definitely. For the rest of it? There were certainly some cool critters in there although I’m sure some of the footage we already saw on the Life in Cold Blood series. And I’m not quite sure how the programme as a whole hung together.
But I will certainly keep watching.
In detail:
- Sea snakes are reptiles in the family Hydrophiidae.
- Sea kraits are members of that family in the genus Laticauda.
- Sea snakes live in warm tropical seas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
- The Caribbean Sea and west Atlantic Ocean are sea snake free.
- Most adult sea snakes grow to about 1 to 1.5m long.
- They have salt glands under and around their tongues to help remove the excess salt they accidentally swallow while living in the sea.