This Malabar pit viper was basking in the morning sunlight on a fallen tree branch covered with mosses and lichens in Katlekan fresh water swamp forests. It was so perfectly camouflaged with the surrounding vegetation that only when we reached very close we could realize that it was a Malabar pit viper in a aggressive striking pose.
Katlekan fresh water swamp forests, Western Ghats,Karnataka, India
Sowmya Chandramouli
© 2014 Center for International Forestry Research. All rights reserved.
I WAS THERE. sowmya nearly picked it up mistaking it for a colorful moss stick
Wonderful..