SA herp meeting May 2004

[Fuscus]

For those who didn't attend this months topic was on pythons found in SA. I thought "this won't take long" but was wrong, the speaker really knew her stuff.
First off was the SA A.Stimtsoni. The Tennent Creek form looks quite different from the SA form with the SA form having a long of blotches that run along the animals side, and there is a visible line that seperates the side blotches from the dorsal blotches.
Then we were shown the SA woma. This is a much larger animal than the NT woma and grows up to three meters ( 8 to 15 meters if you ask the miners on a Friday night). Unfortunatly the animal doesn't keep its colors, turning a near uniform dull brown with age. Incedently the woma hunts for a lot of its prey down burrows and often doesn't have room to constrict. It subdues its prey by pressing it against the burrow wall. The prey has a better oppertunity to fight back , large wild womas are often badly scared.

Then we got to the carpets. Who can tell me how many sub-species we have in SA?
First is the M.s. metcalfei which is found in the south east corner of the state. The SA form is an attractive grey color with a spectacular pattern. This animal is not doing well in SA, being locally extinct in much of its former range.
On the west side of Spencers gulf we have two distinct populations of M.s. imbricata! I wasn't aware that they were found outside of WA. There is a mainland population which is found along the coast to Spencers Gulf and a seperate form found on St. Francis Island. The Island form has dwarf males, the animal brought in to show had been in captivity for seven years and was only about 1.2 meters long. This island population seems to be quite safe as many people won't land there due to the large population of tiger snakes there.

But IMHO the show stopper was the Flinders Range form, it is a large red/brown animal. The demo animal looked something like a cross between a coastal and a bredli, over two meters long and hissed a lot but no lunges or snapping. I want a pair! This form is genetically different from M.s. imbricata and may "graduate" to its own sub-species status soon. The animal has become very rare in the wild, possibly due to introduced predators but there has been extensive 1080 baiting in its range and native mammals are re-establishing themselves there.

All in all it was a great herp night.

[luke]

i will try and get there i will start walking now :wink:

[Fuscus]

Originally Posted by luke

i will try and get there i will start walking now :wink:

If you are going to walk then head to Bourke then walk along the Darling River until you hit the road to Broken Hill. That way you won't have to carry much water :wink:

[Ricko]

yhey fuscus where have you been hiding lately mate? have not seen you in a while. how are the herps going?

[Fuscus]

Had a server crash and been too busy to fix it. My web site is still down . Snakes are fine but there may be big changes shortly (its a secret);

[luke]

fuscus
your not quoting channel ten advertising campain for big brother are you ??

[Fuscus]

Originally Posted by luke

fuscus
your not quoting channel ten advertising campain for big brother are you ??

If I am its accidential.

[westhamsc]

welcome back fuscus good to see your in good health.

[Fuscus]

Originally Posted by westhamsc

.. good to see your in good health.

It's the dogs milk

[westhamsc]

rotflmfao

[Dicco]

You can never go wrong with the dogs milk.