Man has invaded the natural sanctuaries of many animals and has created a paradise world for himself without thinking of the consequences, but paradise has its price to pay.

             Bali the island of the gods, attract hundreds of thousands of visitors in search of its fascinating peaceful culture, art and of course it beautiful unspoilt beaches, It is also a natural refuge to a infinite number of species of animals and plants. 

             The price that has to be paid to enjoy these marvellous beaches, is we have to share them with one of the most venomous sea snakes in the world, one that abandons the sea to bask and breed on the same beaches as man, the Marine Cobra. 

              For this reason we visited the Island of Bali to study the interaction of this potentially dangerous reptile, in one of the most tourist areas in the world, In short the Nusa peninsula, where there are a large number of luxury hotels, with hundreds of thousands of tourist every year. The motive of the visit was to investigate how these reptiles lived side by side with man in an area used by tourist way beyond normal.

            Laticauda colubrina (cobra marinates of bands)

           For José Bergadá, you photograph: Alfonso Gómez

           The marine snakes understand about 50 species, being poisonous all of them. They subdivide in two subfamilies: Laticaudidae and Hydrophiinae. The first ones, to that it belongs “ Laticauda colubrina ” is oviparous for what they need to go out to firm ground pair to deposit his eggs, being besides the only ones of this genre that have developed scales ventrales to be able to move for ground.
Meanwhile they remain in the sea approximately 15 can pass to 20 minutes without need to emerge to recover air in the only functional lung that they have.
 

Sexual dimorphism.

            In this genre of reptiles, as in the majority of reptiles, the males are of considerably minor size that the females, understanding itself that the females are the managers of reproducing the embryos or in case of L. colubrina of developing eggs and depositing them when they are already developed.

              The Poison :

                  Though they have reputation of being calm animals and that they "tolerate" a more or less advisable manipulation, it is known that there is marine elápidos (it belongs to the same group of poisonous snakes that include Cobras and Kraits) possesses a poison ten times superior to that of the worst snake of bell that is known, though fortunately for us and for the divers in general the canine teeth are relatively small and the possibility of being bitten is very hypothetical. Nonetheless many persons, in the main fishermen of coast who, on having withdrawn these reptiles of his networks, are bitten and expire because of this powerful poison.

              The distribution of the poisonous marine snakes includes the coasts of Indonesia, Bangladesh, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and in general the whole Ocean Pacific Indus.

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