Habu

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'Habu' is also a nickname for the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft.

Habu

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Viperidae
Genus:	Trimeresurus

Species

T. okinavensis
T. elegans
T. flavoviridis
T. tokarensis

A Habu (波布, Habu^?) is any of four species of venomous snakes found in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. The habus are all pit vipers that belong to the genus Trimeresurus whose other members are found throughout southeast Asia. Four species have the name habu:

Himehabu, Trimeresurus okinavensis (formerly classified in genus Ovophis)
Sakishima habu, Trimeresurus elegans
Habu, Trimeresurus flavoviridis
Tokarahabu, Trimeresurus tokarensis

Snakes living on different islands of Okinawa prefecture have slightly different features. The habus are viewed as having migrated to Okinawa over a prehistoric land bridge connecting the island to China.

Habus are usually not aggressive; however they will bite if provoked. If one is bitten, it is excruciatingly painful and fatalities were not rare on Okinawa, though fatalities have been controlled on the Ryukyu islands. As in other places^[1] in 1910 the mongoose was introduced from India into Okinawa to control the population of habus but recent studies indicate that since the habu is nocturnal and the mongoose active during the day, mongooses have not interfered with the habu, but instead prey upon other protected rare species of birds and reptiles.^[2]

The habu does not properly hibernate during the winter, but is more active from April to late autumn. Okinawa residents are advised to keep weeds trimmed and avoid loose lumber close to their dwellings, or anything else that could attract the rodents upon which the habu feed.

[edit] Popular culture

During the American administration, when A-12 (and later the SR-71 Blackbird) planes were flown out of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, the locals thought the strange and dangerous-looking planes looked like a habu, nicknaming them Habu.
A habu was a main character in a Japanese children's story called Miki the Mongoose.^[3]
Bottles of (very expensive) "Habu sake" are sold in almost any alcohol store on the big island of Okinawa prefecture; the habu venom present in the sake (along with a dead snake on the bottom) is reputed to increase male virility.
Habu Kurage (kurage means jellyfish in Japanese) is the name used in Okinawa for the species of venomous Box jellyfish Chiropsalmus quadrigatus.
Habu is the name of a gaming mouse made by Microsoft in collaboration with Razer.
In the anime and manga series The Prince of Tennis, a character from the Okinawan Higa middle school, Hirokoba Rin, names one of his special moves the Habu Shot.
Habu is the name of a custom knife design by knifemaker, Ken Onion.