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Field Projects
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Borneo, Malaysia
An ecological and natural history study of the plumbeous water snake (Enhydris plumbea) was conducted during June and July 1993 and in August 1994. The study site was in a rice padi agricultural area at Kayumadang, Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo.
 Some of the results of this work appear in the following publication:
Voris, H. K. and D. R. Karns. 1996. Habitat utilization, movements and activity patterns of Enhydris plumbea (Serpentes, Homalopsinae) in a rice paddy wetland in Borneo. Herpetological Natural History 4(2):111-126.
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Abstract:
 Enhydris plumbea is a semiaquatic mud snake that belongs to the Homalopsinae, a subfamily of Old World freshwater and marine snakes that reach their greatest abundance and diversity in Southeast Asia. At Kayumadang in Sabah, Malaysia, Enhydris plumbea is most abundant in the mud-root-tangle associated with water buffalo wallows in pastures and rice paddies. Larger adults were captured in the stream and pond adjacent to the paddy area. Trapping and radiotelemetry indicate that snakes were largely sedentary but occasionally moved up to 80m. The diet of E. plumbea includes fish and larval amphibians but adult and subadult frogs were the most common stomach contents. Snakes actively forage at night at the surface and move greater distances at night than during the day. However during the day, within the mud-root-tangle, they also feed and exhibit a restricted level of movement.
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