Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sunnyvale]

Hey,

I saw a snake on Cheonggyesan in Seoul about a month ago. Greenish brown color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheonggyesan_(Seoul)

[iwillteachyouenglish]

Thanks and keep em coming everyone! This is exactly the kind of information I need to get started documenting the snakes of Korea.

[morrisonhotel]

I live right out in the boonies. I'm surrounded by forest on three sides. I see snakes maybe once a fortnight (usually tiny little things). Usually see a snake that's been run over once a week or so.

[captain kirk]

Horangibem (tigersnake) is non-poisonous, the equivalent of a Canadian garter snake (though they don't look the same). They live on paddies and eat the frogs and insects there. Farmers are against snakes and kill them with a hoe, probably only the vipers though.

In Cholla I came across some Korean men who'd stopped their car to tease a snake that reared and had a flange either side of its head which became a hood when pissed off. A Korean woman sat in the car, scared or disgusted. The men teased it with sticks. It was about five feet long. I'm not sure the name of it but it looked and behaved like a viper. Returning along that road I found the snake dead; perhaps they had killed it (likely). Black back with an orange belly. Only time I saw one like that.

I asked kids about snakes at this time (middle school hagwon 'free talking', two guys) and they said that it was more common in previous years to catch snakes to sell to make snake wine. A kind of net set up that allowed snakes to go in (like a corral) but not out. Some days later the snake-trapper collects all the snakes. It was a panel net/web set up like a set of walls about a foot high, all connected. Not sure how the snakes got in but they sure couldn't get out.

I'm more familiar with, and have seen more of, the vipers around Chirisan and (you were asking about locating yourself to live and work in a snake populated area) saw them on the mountain roads as either roadkill or living. The camo leaf pattern would be more green on some, more gray on others. Chirisan also had a kind of wildcat (I saw as roadkill), which looks like a houscat with lynx pointed ears and leopard spots on a white chest and brown/black ticked-haired body colour.

I saw the same viper in the wooded mount-hills on Goje island. They coil into a cone/pyramid with the head nestled up top ready to spring remaining completely immobile, not even blinking. Very dangerous. Almost stepped on one coiled, almost sat too close beside one coiled. Both times it freaked me out. Their colour pattern is very effective camoflage, brown, black and grey. Like forest floor litter of dead leaves.

So yes, around Chirisan I saw the most snakes and I lived and worked all over Korea except for Kangwondo and Jeju. Specifically vipers, though. Which I later read is the most evolutionarily advanced snake, especially given a gland it uses for sensing, and its poison, a neurotoxin. Apparently some goretex hiking gaiters protect from their fangs but that would have to be a glancing strike. Straight in I'd imagine the fangs would puncture. Protective gear (against rattlers) is available by mail order from Texas. This same viper lives in Japan too. Mamushi. MISTER Mamushi the Yakuza snake.

Here's a thread found using the search function;

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=22721&start=0

[Crockpot2001]

I often ride mountain bikes on the fire roads and trails on the small islands just North of the Airport island. I've seen 3 snakes there in my 5 or 6 visits.

[alwaysbeclosing100]

The valleys with rivers in southwest gangwondo near samcheok are good for bird watching.

I spent a year on the DMZ crawling through rice paddies and up and down mountains in all types of weather and never saw one single snake.

[captain kirk]

Huh, the Korean rat snake is for sale in a U.S. petshop (!) probably captive bred.

http://www.reptmart.com/p-1034-korean-rat-snake-for-sale.aspx

Video in Korean; 'Owl versus Korean ratsnake'

www.maniacworld.com/Owl-vs-Korean-Ratsnake.html

[murmanjake]

[kardisa]

Are you set on Korea or would you be interested in other countries? Taiwan, for example, is a herpetologist's wet dream. To answer your original question though, I go hiking at least two or three times a week around Gwangju and I have not once seen a snake.

[Kurtz]

I've hiked all around Korea. I go hiking on average 4 times a week, and I've seen 5 snakes at most. I haven't seen much wildlife at all apart from some deer, birds and squirrel type creatures.

Back home in the summer, I've seen PLENTY and most are deadly.

[captain kirk]

Off an established trail is where I've encountered snakes. It may be that an established trail makes for alot of noise, whereas walking off a trail on the springy, soft forest floor makes for less vibrations a snake can sense/hear. When you think about it a 200 lb person pounding along a hard, clay trail must make alot of noise to a snake which has picked up heightened senses evolving to be aware of the vibrations in the ground set up by mice and frogs hopping, its business, its prey. Also, walking on an established trail one is more disconnected from surroundings, like driving on a highway through forest. If there were a snake to be seen it would probably be the tip of the tail high-tailing it 'way over there'. Unless a person had the eyes of an owl or eagle that would be unseen. And an owl or eagle doesn't have to watch the uneven trail to ensure not twisting an ankle.

[flashpatch1]

We live around jincheon in a small village and have seen many snakes here in the trails around us. Most are the Flower snake and the siberian pit viper. Flower snake is blakish with a red spot and pretty harmless and the Pit viper looks like a small rattlesnale without the rattle.
Plenty of wildlife here Frogs and Toads and rats etc. Close to Nong Dari (bridge) but well away from jincheon Town.

[Lunar Groove Gardener]

Last weekend I saw three snakes, each different.
All were road kill in the roads between rice fields.
The largest had a brown/green diamond design and
broad, triangular head; another was bright orange/red with
black checks; the third was quite slim with dark green and
black lines running its length. Lots of grassy land which
is farmed along the rivers in the countryside. I have not yet seen
any snakes in the mountains; as many have said, it seems
clear that the larger animals have almost all gone missing.

[captain kirk]

[Wishmaster]

They got lizards in Korea. I remember being surprised when I saw them. As far as snakes, just like another poster said, take a few snapshots of your hagwon director...they are all snakes.