(intro- apologists to purists, but i wanted to try one of these video thingys...) I believe that this is an Indochinese Rat Snake (not a common rat snake) tho both are similar. This was taken with a G9 cannon, a wonderful light compact camera, that also shoots in RAW - and has video. This little chappy was caught in a conduit along route twisk/TaiMoShan mountain on the 11th october 2008. he appeared very happy in the water, swimming with head raised, and avoiding land.....more like a water snake. My son jack - 12 - leapt down into the water to catch him gently in a net. We carried him to a body of water nearby to release him, where he initially swam down to the rocks (this video) and then away across the water. INDO-CHINESE RAT SNAKE Juvenile. Can grow to 150cm in length. Mainly eats Gunther’s frogs. An active diurnal species. Will dive into water to escape when surprised. Aggresive and will bite vigorously if caught...this little chappy had a good go at us! Commonly sold in in the snake shops here in Hong Kong for its gall bladder and meat. Lays eggs. Taken on a macro setting with the Canon G9 compact camera....ie a 7mm lens...this meant that my hand was about 10cm from his face when I took this, whilst sploshing along in a conduit, and he would strike out occasionally. A great camera to do this with, with good DOF and sufficiently large images to make them look good and sharp - tho this image is compressed for flikr viewing - the original TIFF file being much larger and clearer. This image has already been substantially cropped. For a close up see this.... farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/2948662721_8905949521_o.jpg But for the original image see the large here.... farm4.static.flickr.com/3070/2948400027_2e07f0c0b4_b.jpg but you should check out the original version to see the file size and clarity from a jpeg shot on this astounding little handheld. I am sooo impressed and wonder if this is THE camera for on the fly nature photography....(it even ha...