That, dear friends is known as a Sahara Sand Viper. There's nothing to really get an idea as to scale, but he's about a foot long. Want to know where he was? Well, see the tile floor that he's sitting on in the bottom picture? That's the bathroom floor inside the squadron spaces. The one I walk into several times each night when I am on alert. Wearing my flip-flops. The little guy decided to coil up next to the trash can. I have no idea how long he had been there when he was found, but he was quite alive and not really happy to be the subject of so much attention. He was striking at any and every thing that was in the general area. Including open air. Happily, the ever-reliable Wikipedia says that the bites are painful but not particularly life-threatening. I wasn't really anxious to find out.
On a side note, also according to Wikipedia, the formation that he's got himself coiled into is so that he can rub his scales together and make a rattle-type sound as a warning to stay away. I'll have to take their word for it because I didn't hear anything, but it could just be that he was too small to be heard. We trapped him in a box, covered every hole with duct tape, and called in animal control who came out today to remove him. We also wrote "Deadly Snake! Do not open by order of the XO!" on the box, lest someone think that it was a present for them and decide to see what their mommies had sent them.
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