Herping in the Alps part 1

[jordo]

Instead of the usually fire works or getting blind drunk at a music festival I was lucky enough to spend my new years up at Falls Creek in the Victorian high country. We spent a week trapping for small mammals, bats and reptiles and with plenty of keen naturalists there was always someone pointing out interesting plants or animals that would often otherwise be overlooked. It was a great oppurtunity to see one of Australias harshest yet fragile communities and check out some of Australias most cold tolerant reptiles.

Sorry about the size but I've stuffed around too long to be bothered changing it now
Enjoy..

The scenery is just staggering, this was the first time I'd been to the alps since I was young so it was a lot to soak up. One of our sites was located on the first ridge in this picture. We had some great sunny weather up there while the rest of the state was in a heat wave


We used lines of Elliot traps positioned in rocky areas suitable for the mountain pygmy possum, we didn't get any pygmy possums but got a few of these guys:

Antechinus swainsonii, the dusky antechinus.


Trying to escape the bucket...


We also caught plenty of Bush Rats, Rattus fuscipes


And also the rarer less prolific Broad-toothed Rat, Mastacomys fuscus which is thought to be on the decline in some areas due to fox predation.


Amphibian diversity was low however we got plenty of Crinia signifera, Common froglet.


True to it's name Pretty Valley was a mosaic of streams and pools in the peat bog, excellent habitat for the Crinias


The streams contained native Galaxia fish, these were either broad finned or mountain galaxia, the two species proved difficult to ID.

We went on a day walk in an area known for brumbies and sure enough...


The walk also yielded a few species of orchids



Some of the Snow gums were also in full flower


Bat trapping got us a few species like this big guy (for bat standards) Falsistrellus tasmaniensis, the Eastern False Pipistrelle



Butterflies were all over the mountain tops in the morning soaking up the sun, I think this one was a green swallow tail.

What about the herps?
Well this was certainly one of the highlights of the trip for me. The alpine she-oak skink, a medium lizard with striking red patterns, found under a rock.


The white lips Drysdalia coronoides were reasonably common and kept popping up in the same small territories, like this guy we caught under the same rock. As far as I know these little guys are Australias most cold tolerant snake species (if not they'd definately be in the top 3) and were very active even early in the mornings.


E. guthega were reasonably common in rocky areas where they would live in burrows under the rocks, these guys are like a white's skinks on steroids, very stocky.


This was at one of our trapping sites, the place is known as Ruined Castle due to the interesting rock formation, it was also riddled with skinks.


We got a few species of Pseudomoia skinks, they're little chunky lizards that can flatten out really well to utilise the sun in their cold environment, very common everywhere in the alps and no doubt the staple food item for the white lipped snakes.

P. pagenstecheri, characterised by the dorsal stripes


P. entrecastauxii, less stripy than the first species although I'm still not entirely sure how to tell them apart from cryodroma, if anyone can help please let me know.


P. entrecastauxii, this one was really metallic green in colour.


We also saw a large highlands copperhead but it disappeared in the low shrubs before I could get any snaps.
Southern water skinks were common around the rocky streams but I was having too much fun chasing them to get any good pics

[ssssnakeman]

Cool pics Jordo, love the bat and fly one.

[cement]

Beautiful way to see in the new year. Love this country.

[moloch05]

Fantastic, Jordo. I have not yet tried the alps for herps but your finds make it very enticing. I would really like to see E. guthega and the alpine she-oak skink.

The habitat looked great and the orchids were great.

I like the "airborne" pic of the Antechinus.


Regards,
David

[hydro noun15]

awsome pics!!
i love the bat and fly one that was cool.

[hozy6]

awesome love the pics

[Cheesecake]

Briliant pics Jordo including a few I hadn't seen before. I still haven't had a chance to get up there - will need to plan ahead for the summer after next!

Dave.

[ryanharvey1993]

wow, awsome pics, you found a bit, love the shee oak skink

[Nephrurus]

Great pics of some difficult to see species. The swainsoni are one of my favourites.... Mastacomys are beautiful.

A great post.

-H

[moloch05]

Jordo,

What were the skinks that lived on the rocks of the Ruined Castle? All Pseudemoia?

Regards,
David

[Bushfire]

Great to see things looking good up there last time I was at Falls Crk unfortunely was in 2003 and was burning.

[eipper]

HI all,

The second to last pic is a male Cryodroma

Looks like my survey site is still going well up there.......no Burramys I take it...as when I was speaking to John he said nothing but heard all about the praealtus.

Did you see any of the very common Eulaprus koscioskoi there (well very common in the right spot)

Cheers,
Scott

[jase75]

Love the White Lipped Snake , how many did u see?

[GARTHNFAY]

Great pics....the brumbys are certainly in great nick!!

[moloch05]

Hello Scott,

What are the features that you used to identify P. cryodroma?

Thanks,
David