Snake

Half term has just started. At 5:30 this afternoon, not long after most people had left, I found this fellow, around 0.5m long, heading towards the open doors into reception. I encouraged him to head the other way, which he dutifully did.

I’ve seen snakes before on Jeju – I came across one on a small road I was running along a couple of weeks ago. I assume it was the same species. Our next door neighbour has also skinned one that had been run over so he could display the skin in his biology classroom.

But the photo I took this afternoon prompted me to try and identify the species. There seem to be lots of different species on Jeju, but the best I can do by way of identification is Gloydius ussuriensis, which is a venomous pit viper according to one website I looked at. You probably don’t want those around school. Not alive, anyway.