bredli Range

[mrmikk]

When answering another post, I got to thinking about the range of the bredli.

I understand core populations occur within a few hundred kilometre radius of Alice Springs, but have also been located as far east as Birdsville in Qld, as far south as the NT/SA border and as far west as SWW of Tennant Creek, about 150/200km east of the WA/NT border.

WA Dept of Environment & Heritage allow only WA native reptiles to be kept by WA residents under the appropriate licence. Therefore the WA Govt acknowledge that bredlis have not been located in WA.

My question is, Has there been any work done to locate bredli in WA, to determine whether there is a WA form of the bredli?

[Jonno from ERD]

Mick,

The ones around Birdsville are M.s.metcalfei, not M.bredli. The best person to talk to about M.bredli distribution would have been Graeme Gow, but unfortunately he passed away last year, so maybe get in touch with some NT locals like Rex Neindorf, Grant Husband or even the NT Museum?

A lot of the central east of Western Australia is "unchartered territory", with very little survey work been done. This is the same area where the new species of Taipan (Oxyuranus temporalis) was located recently, and I believe there were several range extensions discovered on the same trip. If a large species of diurnal elapid can evade science for so long, then it is definitely possibly for there to be unknown locality of M.bredli or even a new "sub-species".

Cheers

[mrmikk]

Hi Jonno,

Thanks for that info. Interesting one this. The information I was relying on regarding Birdsville sightings of M.bredli is the WA Museum site at this link

What are you basing these sightings on to be M.metcalfi? (Sorry, if this comes across argumentative, it's not, and I am not doubting your experience, but just keen to find out a little more on this topic - typing words in threads sometimes has that unintentioned effect.).

As you said, the possible Western extremities of the M.bredli range is very unchartered territory and claims are the McDonnell Ranges mark the Western limit of the M.bredli range and presents a natural barrier to any populations being any further west.

Would make for a very interesting herp trip in that area I think.

I wonder if the boys & girls at Pilbara Pythons have any more info on this? (Might PM I think)

Thanks again.

[Jonno from ERD]

G'day Mick,

There's a massive "wall" between the Alice Springs/McDonnell Range area in the form of the Simpson Desert, which is apparently uninhabited by Morelia (most Morelia require some sort of decent arboreal habitat and waterways to survive). All the waterways to the east side of the Simpson are interconnected and Morelia spilota metcalfei/variegata occur along most of them.

I am not 100% positive that the specimen collected near Birdsville isn't M.bredli as that would be foolish, but I would be willing to bet a lot of money that it wasn't - I have seen photos and live examples of specimens from in and around Birdsville (Windorah, Goyders Lagoon, Pandie Pandie, Innamincka) and they are definitely of the "Murray/Darling" race of Morelia. As we know with Jungles and Carpets, you can get both occuring in the same area but I highly doubt that M.bredli occur on the East side of the Simpson. West of Alice Springs is a totally different story - I wouldn't bat an eyelid if someone found them in WA - just recently a Neprhurus amyae was found in WA for the first time in the same are as Oxyuranus temporalis.

Cheers

Jonno

[bigguy]

Johno is absolutely correct. They are not Bredls at Birdsville, but are in fact Metcalfi. As for info on the range of Bredls, Gavin Bedford did his PHD on this species. He would probably be the best to ask.