The Realisation of a Dream

Since my first brief visit to Mindo in 2002 I've dreamt of finding and photographing the Ecuadorian Toad-headed Pit-viper (Bothrocophias campbelli).  This obscure montane form is endemic to the cloud forests of Ecuador's west Andean slope.  I searched for weeks, during two trips, in 2007 and in 2008, before I finally found a large individual of this spectacular species crawling across a forest path one warm night.  I could not believe my good fortune when I was able to capture a second example, a melanistic morph of the most extraordinary colour, just three paces from the door of my hut the very next evening.  Each snake was detained overnight, to be photographed the following day, gleefully, and entirely in natural light.

What little is known about this enigmatic highland pit-viper is summarised in The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere, Campbell and Lamar, 2004.
Image 1
    Image 2
      Image 3
        Image 4
          Image 5
            Image 6
              Image 7
                Image 8
                  Image 9