While deployed in Okinawa, the SR-71s and their aircrew members gained the nickname Habu (as did the A-12s preceding them) after a southeast Asian pit viper which the Okinawans thought the plane resembled.
Yoshiharu Habu | Habu | ''habu'' | habu |
Habushu is aptly named after the habu snake(Trimeresurus flavoviridis) which belongs to the Pit viper family and is closely related to the American rattler or copperheads.
The island has a venomous snake—Trimeresurus elegans, known locally as the habu, is a species of pitviper whose bite has a fatality rate of 3% and a permanent disability rate of 6–8%.
As with nearby Yoroshima to the northwest, the island is noted for its high density of habu poisonous vipers.
Yabuchi Island is well known for its large population of habu, the poisonous pit viper of Okinawa, and its southern coast is dense with kasanori, and Okinawan species of Ulvophyceae, an edible algae.