Black-Headed Bushmaster (Snake)

Black-headed Bushmaster- Lachesis melanocephala

This rare phenomenom, only found in the southeastern peninsula of Costa RIca, living in wet to moist forests, enjoying evironments with cool temperature and a continuous drizzle/rainfaill.
- As its name suggests, the top of the bleak-headed bushmaster is black. The back of this creatures body is covered with diamond-shaped areas of light brown to yellow features.
- The black-headed bushmaster often may reach 6.6 feet but has been seen to reach around 8 feet long.

The black-headed bushmaster withholds a very lethal strike. For the majority of its meals, this snake targets many mammels. To capture/kill these animals, the black-headed bushmaster tends to remain still, hidden in crevases, waiting for the perfect moment. When it sees prey, the snake lashes out with a "strike and hold on" mentality.
- When not hunting, the black-headed bushmaster tends to wait and stay in tunnels.
  - The bushmaster has adapted to conceal most of its body, and only need its head to be basking in the sunlight.

One of the only snakes to actually have a mating courtship, the male performs a "upside down sawing" on the female.

The Bite

"If you are bitten by a Bushmaster, it is better to just lie down under a tree and rest, for you will soon be dead.”
- Not many survive (humans) a black-headed bushmaster's bite. Many who go untreated after the bite are in danger of dying.
- One survivor recounts, "15 minutes of nausea, 20 minutes of projectile vomiting and diarrhea, 25 minutes of chills, blood pressure dropping, 30 minutes of abdominal pain, 35 minutes of body numbness, feeble pulse, and 40 minutes of a state close to death."

The Black-Headed Bushmaster is seen here basking with only its head in the sunlight