Banded kraits in the US

Davdhole

Davdhole

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Does anyone know of a zoo or other animal facility in the US (or close enough to here) that houses banded kraits? Nowhere I've been to or heard of has them, and they're such a beautiful species that I'd love to see in person someday. Are they rare, or maybe just too difficult to care for? I'd imagine if several other elapids can be kept in captivity without issue, banded kraits can, too. Plus having such an eye-catching species related to other infamous snakes sounds like a plus for a zoo.

Btw just in case someone may think I'm talking about the sea snake, I mean the terrestrial black and yellow krait, not the aquatic krait.
 
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Aquarium of the Pacific held them briefly, as I learned today.

 
JVM said:
Aquarium of the Pacific held them briefly, as I learned today.

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To my understanding Aquarium of the Pacific no longer has this species, but only recently lost its last animal. I think there are currently no other aquatic sea kraits on show in the USA. They are also no longer represented in European zoos/aquariums since ± 2017 either. Few other parks in the world keep them, but Japan has possibly the largest amount. Kagoshima City Aquarium has Laticauda semifasciata. On the phone, they refer to the animal as Laticauda laticaudata so this is up for discussion. Okinawa World on the island of Okinawa (famous island amongst Zoochatters for the large Churaumi aquarium) also has one species on show, Laticauda semifasciata. The largest aquatic sea krait collection was until recently Suma Aquarium. Because of rebuilding, the whole collection was shipped away to Amami Kanko Habu Center. This included real sea snakes as well.

Regarding the species what this topic was originally about, the genus Bungarus:
Species of this group are slightly more represented in captivity because they have less requirements than the aquatic counterpart. In both America and Europe a handful of parks have these beautiful snakes. I could find this video online when looking into it: Malayan Krait ( Bungarus candidus)... - Kentucky Reptile Zoo | By Kentucky Reptile Zoo | Malayan Krait ( Bungarus candidus) four individuals
Apparently Kentucky Reptile Zoo has three different banded kraits in the collection: multicinctus, fasciatus & candidus.
The species is fairly often visible in zoos in mainland Asia, like Thailand and China.
 
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Does Toledo still have one?

Edit: Whoop sorry, I didn't see that you were specifically talking about the non-aquatic ones...
 
Davdhole said:
Are they rare, or maybe just too difficult to care for?
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Kraits in general are not very common in zoos. Their nocturnal nature, reclusiveness during the day, dietary preferences (at least in some species) and last but not least their potent venom do not make them great display species in regular zoo settings. I was thinking about getting one for WdG, but I doubt that the benefits would outweigh the disadvantages.
 
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Batto said:
Kraits in general are not very common in zoos. Their nocturnal nature, reclusiveness during the day, dietary preferences (at least in some species) and last but not least their potent venom do not make them great display species in regular zoo settings. I was thinking about getting one for WdG, but I doubt that the benefits would outweigh the disadvantages.
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Well, less than a year later, I made the jump and got myself a juvenile blue krait (Bungarus candidus). So if you want to see one in an European zoo, visit WdG. ;)
 
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