Snake Temple Pit Vipers, Penang

WARNING: Don't view if you're scared of looking at snakes!

Snakes alive! The Snake Temple is swarmed with snakes and they're crawling all over the place. They are Wagler's Pit Vipers (Tropidolaemus wagleri), and they're venomous! And for your information, they have not been defanged (because doing so shortens their life span.) Being bitten is therefore going to be a pretty painful experience. However, you can view them safely on this page.

To see plenty of these reptiles at the Snake Temple, go on a normal day. Do not go to the Snake Temple during festival time, when the temple is expected to be crowded. For the well-being of the snakes, many of them are removed for safekeeping whenever there is a festivity, as the reptiles are easily irritated by the smoke and crowd.

In this photo gallery are the shots of the Snake Temple Pit Vipers. Most of these shots were taken by my wife Chooi Yoke on 1 March, 2009, during the Penang Heritage Trust Site Visit which I organised, following the recent 2008-2009 restoration of the Snake Temples.