With no sub-species, this is a deadly reptile that grows to be about 5-feet (1.52 meters - though one specimen was found to be 7.5-feet (2.29 meters). The snake is also one of the few pit vipers that is oviparous--it lays eggs, up to 18 in mid-summer that hatch after a five or six week incubation period. The hatchlings are 25 centimeters (10 inches) long and have the same colouration pattern as an adult.
The Habu is also known as the Okinawa habu, and has a color pattern varying between a light olive green and brown colour overlaid with dark green or brownish patches. These patches sometimes have a yellow edge and or yellow spots that fuse to make it look wavy.
It's colouration seems perfectly apt for hiding in the local trees, though it seems to prefer anything from the palm forest to the cultivated fields to old tombs or caves.
The venom of the snake is very toxic, but there is only a 3% fatality rate... of course, when bitten, fast medical treatment plays a factor in those numbers. Between 6-8% of bite victims do suffer a permanent disability.
On the Amami islands two out of every 1,000 people has suffered from a snakebite from the Habu Viper.
So, why did I decide to write up about this snake today?
As you may know, the Japanese like to drink alcohol - just like a lot of countries. But, they use the Habu Viper to create a liqour called awamori called Habu sake (though it's not really a sake: sake = rice wine ). Now, when I first heard about that, I thought oh god, they're going to use the venom in the drink, to create a thrill, just like the whole dare-you-to-eat it poison fugu puffer fish delicacy---which to me tasted like fish. Extreme tastebuds, I do not possess.
But no. the whole snake is used in the drink's fermentation process and is sold in glass bottles that--depending on what you consider to be luck--may or may not have the body of the snake in it.
The awamori alcohol is mixed with honey, herbs and the snake. Why add a snake? Apparently the Habu Viper is known by the locals as having medicinal properties.
Ahhh, the slick marketing of the Japanese! The Habu sake when drunk is good for back pain and arthritis. I'm guessing it may have something to do with the venom in the snake... and it does, as the venom dissolves in the alcohol and releases a bunch of amino acids that someone has said is good for you.
How do you get the snake to go into the bottle? Once captured, they chill the snake by putting it on ice, which dulls its senses. Then you drain it of blood and sew it up.
Apparently the snake will wake up, die from lack of blood, but will hopefully die in the attack position, which is what habu sake distillers want when they place the snake into an ethanol vat to preserve it.
The snake is left to soak for four weeks, and then moved into a vat mixed with 59 per cent alcohol for 40 days before being placed into a vat of 35 per cent awamori.
There you go. Now YOU have the recipe. Why not give it a try this weekend - just in time for the summer!
So, why did I decide to write up about this snake today?
This time I'll answer my own question. If you read that little blurb up above about me, the writer, you might notice that I like aviation. I was reading up on my favourite plane... the Lockheed SR-71Blackbird . I had a model of it back in the very early 1970s, and was pleased as punch to learn that the new X-Men were flying one back in Giant Sized X-Men #1, which revamped the whole team for Marvel Comics.
Anyhow... another nickname for the SR-71 is the Habu Viper.
Somewhere my lips are numb,
Andrew Joseph
Today's blog title is by The Doors: HISSSS
