第 0281 號，共 1 402 號

Yellow-lipped sea krait

Laticauda colubrina

可能致命不治療的話可能會害死你。如果牠咬了你，要趕快求救。

咬吃：肉

The yellow-lipped sea krait is a highly venomous sea snake. It lives in tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific, between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. It spends much of its time underwater hunting, but it comes ashore to digest food, rest and breed.1

分布在

Tropical Indo-Pacific, from eastern India through Southeast Asia to Fiji and other Pacific islands1

太平洋, 印度洋, 菲律賓海, 南海, 珊瑚海, 安達曼海, 帝汶海與阿拉弗拉海, 孟加拉灣

首頁

It lives in coastal waters and on the land beside them, and adults spend about half their time on land. People often meet it because it turns up in the water intake and exhaust pipes of boats, and it is drawn to lights in hotels and other buildings on coasts.1

長度

88 cm 到 1,4 m (2,9 ft 到 4,7 ft)1

最高速度

大約 4,2 km/h（2,6 mph）

游泳, 粗略估計

牠吃什麼？

It mainly eats eels, and also small fish. It usually hunts alone, but sometimes hunts in groups with giant trevally and goatfish, flushing prey out of narrow crevices and holes.1

Yellow-lipped sea krait 的照片 — Yellow-lipped sea krait。照片：Bernard DUPONT。 CC BY-SA 4.0, iNaturalist.

怎麼認出牠

Black head with a yellow upper lip and snout. The yellow extends back above the eye.1
Upper body is a bluish grey, with black rings of about the same width along its length. The belly is yellowish.1
Paddle-shaped tail, adapted for swimming.1
Between 21 and 25 rows of overlapping scales run along the middle of the body.1

常被誤認為： The yellow-lipped New Caledonian sea krait is similar. It has fewer rows of scales, and its scales narrow or fail to meet. The dark bands of the yellow-lipped sea krait meet across the belly.1

毒液力量

咬

咬的時候，毒液會從毒牙或牙齒出來。

牠的毒液有什麼作用？

Its venom is a very powerful neurotoxic venom, which attacks the nerves. It blocks signals between nerves and muscles, which causes paralysis. In mice, lethal doses caused lethargy, paralysis and convulsions in quick succession before death.1

牠對人有多危險？

對人的危險: 非常危險如果沒有治療，牠可能會害死一個人。

Fewer bites are recorded from this snake than from cobras and vipers, because it is less aggressive and tends to avoid people. Bites usually happen when it is accidentally grabbed. Most sea snake bites happen when fishermen try to untangle the snakes from their nets.1

牠害怕時會做什麼？

It is not aggressive and only attacks when it feels threatened, and its tail moves and looks like its head, which can fool predators.1

如果牠咬人

加壓固定法：用彈性繃帶緊緊包住咬傷處，再往上包住整條手臂或腿，用夾板固定，並讓傷者完全不動，直到救援抵達。
把傷者帶離水中，趕快送醫院。

一定要先打緊急電話（112、000、911）。這是一般急救指引，不是醫療建議。急救基本知識

注意安全

絕對不要碰、抓或捉弄野生動物，就算是很小的動物，就算牠看起來在睡覺或已經死了也一樣。
給牠空間。如果遇到了，保持冷靜，慢慢往後退，讓牠自己離開。
如果被牠咬了：保持冷靜，保持不動，打緊急電話（112、000、911）或趕快去醫院。記住牠的樣子，有照片會很有幫助。

牠不是想來抓你。牠用毒液來捕捉食物或保護自己，而且牠更想躲起來。更多安全知識

在世界上的哪裡？

非洲亞洲歐洲北美洲南美洲澳洲與大洋洲太平洋印度洋珊瑚海南海菲律賓海安達曼海帝汶海與阿拉弗拉海孟加拉灣

牠有多大？

牠有多長？

跟 3 隻家貓從鼻子接到尾巴一樣長跟 8 根香蕉頭尾相接一樣長可以在 43 秒內游完一座大游泳池（50 公尺）

Yellow-lipped sea krait 跟「你」比起來有多大？

只是在你的瀏覽器裡做算術。什麼都不會儲存，也不會傳送到任何地方。

牠有多快？

一個正在游泳的人 大約 3 km/h (1,9 mph)

Yellow-lipped sea krait 大約 4,2 km/h (2,6 mph)

奧運游泳選手 大約 8 km/h (5 mph)

值得知道

小知識

Eels from New Guinea, where this snake lives, tolerated doses of its venom about 750 times larger than eels from the Caribbean, where it does not live.1

Snakes moved 5.3 km away from their home islands in Fiji all returned to their home islands, taking an average of 30.7 days.1

It hunts underwater but returns to land to digest food, shed its skin and breed.1

In the Philippines, these snakes are caught for their skin and meat. The meat is smoked and exported for use in Japanese cuisine.1

Females are much larger than males, with an average length of 142 cm compared with 87.5 cm for males.1

It is the most common sea krait found in New Zealand, where it is protected under the Wildlife Act 1953.1

破解迷思

迷思： Sea snakes are aggressive and attack people often.

真相： This snake is not aggressive. It avoids people and usually bites only when it is accidentally grabbed or feels threatened.1

給毒液專家

學名: Laticauda colubrina
類群: 海蛇
家人: Elapidae2
排序: Squamata
各大洲: 太平洋, 印度洋, 菲律賓海, 南海, 珊瑚海, 安達曼海, 帝汶海與阿拉弗拉海, 孟加拉灣, 海洋
寶寶: It lays eggs, as many as 10 in a clutch, in crevices where they stay until they hatch. Only two nests have been reported in the wild across its range.1
對人的危險: 4 / 5: 非常危險3