The Hawaiian Blind Snake

I had an exciting experience yesterday … I saw my first Hawaiian blind snake in more than 50 years. Oh, you didn’t know Hawaii had snakes? Well, no matter what you may have heard, or what others have told you, we do. Two of them, in fact.

One of them is poisonous – the yellow-bellied sea snake. But it’s rare and only visits Hawaiian waters occasionally.

The other one is a “brahminy,” aka “Hawaiian blind snake,” a harmless snake that found its way to the islands in potted plants. Found mostly in Africa and Asia, they look like black earthworms that have been on a diet. They’re pretty skinny creatures and could be mistaken for earthworms save for their color, and their dry, scaly skin (unlike the moist reddish skin of a worm).

Ramphotyphlops braminus grows up to 10 inches long, but the one I saw yesterday was about three inches in length. Which means it was a juvenile.

The curious thing about brahminy is that they are “parthenogenic” (all females), the only known snake species that have this characteristic. Hmmmm, I guess being blind puts a crimp on finding a mate, huh? No wonder they spend their time just burrowing around in the dirt and humus of gardens. They apparently eat mostly ant and termite eggs and young. Also curious is the fact that they either lay eggs or bear live young.

The wife found the snake yesterday. She thought it was a young worm, which just goes to show she doesn’t know a lot about worms. Still, she didn’t want to touch it, shooing it onto a large plumeria leaf to show to me. Of course, I let it drop into my hand so I could examine it more closely.

After taking its picture, I placed it on the ground and watched it wiggle its way to some grass. A brown anole lizard immediately pounced on it and tried to eat it, but it wiggled pretty enthusiastically and kept on escaping. I wonder what the anole was thinking. It eventually gave up and the blind snake disappeared.

The first time I saw one was when I was in college. My good friend and roommate, Jim Kuroiwa, and I were walking along in Kaimuki when he stopped, bent down and picked up what I thought was a worm. It was a blind snake, which he immediately identified by its scientific name and showed me its teeny little mouth. Jim, by the way, was an agriculture major at the University of Hawaii, while I majored in skipping class to play ping pong at the dorm.

So anyway, back to the one in our yard. I got to thinking … if there’s a three-inch juvenile squirming around in our potted plants, could there be a 10-inch adult somewhere? Must be, huh?

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

(End of today’s Hawaiian zoology lesson.)