Herping at Cape Tribulation

[wread17]

Hello all,
I recently went on a holiday to Port Douglas and had a great time, we didn't see many reptiles with these about all of them. Any help with id's is welcome.




We ended up finding 3 Boyd's Forest Dragons over the trip and these guys are amazing. They will let you approach them to within 30 centimetres without moving, making them perfect camera subjects. They are also surprisingly hard to spot as can be seen by the last picture showing just it's head, which was all we could see from the path.


These two skinks were found at 2 different locations and I can't identify them. They seem to be closest to Carlia rostralis/schmeltzii but don't 100% match them especially the second one with the blue colouration. Help please?

This was the final herp found and i believe it's Eulamprus tigrinus but again I'm not sure. Sorry for the horrible picture but it was uncooperative.

It was a great holiday and we ended up finding some pretty cool birds as well such as s Victoria's Riflebird, a Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher and some Beach Stone Curlews but was unable to get pictures. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Those boyds are amazing looking dragons. Truly look like dinosaurs...

Those skinks look very nice , I wonder what species they are too.

What gear do you carry to get such nice photos ?

 

[BredliFreak]

I agree kingofnobbys, they look ancient. They make the Daintree more like Jurassic park!

 

[wread17]

The Boyd's are definitely my favourite species right now, they are just so different to everything else. The camera is Canon 70D with a Canon 100mm Macro lens but not the L series version, the one that came out before it.

 

[wread17]

So nobody know any id's?

 

[Bluetongue1]

Circumstances have led me to conclude it is not worth my while to continue posting on the forum. I will make an exception in this case, as I had already prepared a response, no-one else has replied and you are clearly very keen to master your ID skills.

The Eulampris is tigrinus - yellow blotches between the black blotches on the top of the flanks; the black blotches extend onto the back as narrow bands. There is no banding or yellow sides blotches on E. brachysoma or tenuis.

The Carlias are both longipes. It is not C. scmeltzii - body not robust; ear opening is round, not vertically oriented; the border between the dark band from the eye to the shoulder and the pale lower neck and throat, is sharp with no gradual breaking up of dark markings; lack of dark-edged scales on the side of body and neck. It is not C. rostralis because: ear opening is round and not vertically oriented; they are in breeding colours but there is no black showing on the throat; the dark upper lateral band from the head only extends back to above the shoulder and not midway or further long the body.

 

[wread17]

Thanks Bluetongue, shame that you are quitting the forum, you are especially helpful for any id related questions.