Ornate stranded on the seashore
This spring tide look phenomenal. That seems to have decreased the sand crab population. Previously they were seen digging holes here and there, but now only one or two of them were visible. The sea tide rises further than usual to the shore. One fish farming pond near the sea, broke. High tides also appear to have brought the reef dwellers closer to shore. After the water receded and normalcy returned, not all of them made it back to the coral reefs. Among them, one had to be stranded on the beach. One, the waves keep pushing him to the shore. No matter how hard he tried, until the time I saw him, he hadn't made it back.
It comes from a well-known family: Elapidae (éllops: sea-fish), a creature that is quite beautiful. It deserves a name: the ornate reef sea snake. It is distributed in the Indian ocean, and Indonesia, and this one is in Aceh, north of the island of Sumatra, in Indonesia. From some of the pictures I show here, perhaps, you can easily notice the thick scales, rhombus-shaped spots separated by narrow slits. The color is generally greyish, broad dark stripes separated by an almost white color.
It is a species of venomous sea snake. Even though it's dangerous, but I like that shy appearance. Once, it butted in and covered it's face with sand!
The body, which is heavy and relatively long, appears to be in a shape which I think helps it to swim. But on the beach sand, it would obviously lose its agility. With a dry twig, I tried to help it to return to the sea. But it was reluctant. It even reversed direction. It's like saying, "Thank you. I'm good. I'm Hydrophis ornatus! You don't have to worry because I spend most of my time in the shallow water near the shore, and hunting on the reefs! Stranded on the beach, nothing unusual for us!"
Okay, then! Very happy to meet you. Will we meet again when the next spring tide? It just twists the body (Goodbye!).
Sources:
Wikipedia: Hydrophis ornatus
Wikipedia: Elapidae
Worms: Hydrophis ornatus (Gray, 1842)
The Reptile Database: Hydrophis ornatus (GRAY, 1842)
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