White-Lipped lsland Pit Viper

Called the White-Lipped Island Pit Viper (Trimeresurus insularis), it’s related to the White-Lipped Pit Viper (T. albolabris), endemic to Southeast Asia. But there’s a noticeable difference between the species.

While most of them are emerald green in color as you might expect,  in certain places such as Komodo Island, the one with the dragon, this snake can also come in a beautiful shade of light blue. White-Lipped Island Pit Viper  are definitely getting more and more popular over the years. It is all because they're an odd bright sky blue color and it is in fact very odd as many snakes would prefer to blend into their surroundings.

White-Lipped Pit Viper are part of the biggest tree Viper family of Asia with around 30 plus species and counting. Most species in this genus are rather small, slender with short and prehensile tails. These Pit Vipers are arboreal and spend most of their time in the trees. The White-Lipped lsland Pit Viper is very hard to find. At first scientists thought that maybe this snake went through some sort of color change which happens among various snake species, but in addition to its unique hue, it possesses the additional rare trait of being blue its entire life. 

In an interview with Australian Geographic, Stephen Mahoney of the Herpetology Department at the Australian Museum pointed out that there is also a bright yellow version of the White-Lipped Island Pit Viper endemic to other islands.

Regardless of its color, this island-dwelling viper is one of the most common causes of venomous bites in Bali, and it tends to favor “fight” over “flight.” While the species tends to favor bushlands and bamboo forests, those in search of food, such as mice or lizards, occasionally enter populated areas. 

While their venom rarely kills, it’s incredibly unpleasant to get a bite from a white-lipped island pit viper – they have a ‘hemorrhagic’ venom, which can cause excessive internal and external bleeding, necrosis of the flesh, pain, and swelling, both internally and externally. And once the venom has done its thing, these vipers use their fangs to ‘walk’ their prey into their mouths. 

Being bitten by White-Lipped lsland Pit Viper comes with unpleasant symptoms such as excessive internal and external bleeding, necrosis of the flesh, pain, and swelling. On the bright side, results of bites from this species range from mild envenoming to death. The venom of White-Lipped lsland Pit Viper contains procoagulant properties. There have been numerous reported bites with few fatalities.

If you want to catch a glimpse of a White-Lipped lsland Pit Viper in the wild, you don’t have to brave the wilds of Komodo Island – common tree snakes (Dendrelaphis punctulatus) from all over Australia can come in blue varieties, and there’s a species of python in far north Queensland that turns blue when it’s pregnant.

“In the green tree python (Morelia viridisi), when a female is gravid (pregnant) with eggs, the hormonal change in her body can lead to increased blue colouration,” Mahony explains.

“When she lays the eggs and hormones return to normal, the blue colour returns to their normal emerald green. Though there’s some anecdotes from long-time keepers that a tiny bit of blue remains each time, and eventually a female that has laid many clutches of eggs may remain permanently slightly blue.”