Reptiles in the floods

[Jonno from ERD]

G'day guys,

I've seen a few people recently mention that the floods will be devastating to reptile populations - this couldn't be further from the truth. The flood water in SEQ is loaded with debris, and generally only several hundred metres wide as Brisbane is quite hilly.

I took these photo's yesterday morning of some local skink species in survival mode. Australia regularly floods and all of our wildlife have adapted to deal with this. Some of them are also taking advantage of the situation, with a Yellow Faced Whip Snake we collected from the edge of the floodwater yesterday regurgitating an Ornate Burrowing Frog and two Striped Marsh Frogs.

1 - Ctenotus robustus
2 - Lampropholis delicata
3 - Ctenotus robustus
4 - Calyptotis scutirostrum

 

[Jonno from ERD]

P.S. We have a lot of emails and PM's to reply to. We were on holidays from New Years to the 10th of January, and basically came home to floods which are right where we are. We will be getting back to normal from this afternoon.

 

[Snakeluvver2]

Last photo is gold.
Do you think the late clutches of many captive reptiles this year where also prominent in the wild and due to the weather, particularly atmospheric pressure relating to the heavy rains and subsequently the floods?

 

[Jonno from ERD]

Pretty much no doubt about it mate. Reptiles are very sensitive to atmospheric conditions and will adapt as such.

 

[Jay84]

With such heavy flooding and movement of water though, a lot of reptiles i assume will be displaced to habitats foreign to them where they will not survive?

 

[gillsy]

I know a few reptile rescuers in Brissie are flat out, especially with EB's and GTS.

 

[pythons73]

What about gravid females and the ones who have already laid their clutch,i would imagine these eggs would be no good..If a gravid female was due to drop and couldnt find a dry suitable place to have her eggs,could any issues arise with the female not dropping her clutch...A few people have said to me that alot of animals including reptiles will drown,however i said ALL snakes can swim when need be,all the snakes that live in burrows,hollow logs and so on will be looking for higher ground.

 

[Jonno from ERD]

Hey guys,

The floods are very concentrated - usually only a few hundred metres wide at most. Brisbane is very hilly, so most reptiles usually only have to make it short distance to the left or right before they are on dry land. The flooding in SEQ isn't like the flash flooding that was around Toowoomba or Grantham/Gatton either - it is a very slow flow now, with a lot of still water.

 

[AM Pythons]

i seen a great pic yesterday of a frog ridding on the back of a snake through the flood waters...

---------- Post added 13-Jan-11 at 11:47 AM ----------

Taxi! Frog catches ride with snake through flooded

 

[AllThingsReptile]

personally, i think it may not "damage" the reptile populations, but will certainly change behaviour, distribution and thinks like that, also maybe snake bites will be more frequent, as snakes are,as johnno has said in "survival mode", and its do or die, they will be more desperate, and feel more threatened, if anybody thinks otherwise, please explain, as i have no real first hand experiences with this, but it has flooded minorly in my area, and this is what i have observed

my 2 cents

 

[waruikazi]

personally, i think it may not "damage" the reptile populations, but will certainly change behaviour, distribution and thinks like that Some animals may get washed around with flood waters but when the waters reced they will go back to their normal habitat, also maybe snake bites will be more frequent, as snakes are,as johnno has said in "survival mode", and its do or die Wild animals are always do or die, we may see more bite because there will be more interactions with snakes from people cleaning and the reduced ammount of dry land., they will be more desperate, and feel more threatened, if anybody thinks otherwise, please explain, as i have no real first hand experiences with this, but it has flooded minorly in my area, and this is what i have observed

my 2 cents

These animals have evolved to deal with these issues. Many and probably most animals will benefit greatly from the floods. It doesn't take a great leap of imagination to realize that after a flood the environment grows very quickly. With the water there will be a boom in the vegetation, that will make conditions better for insects and herbivores, that flows on to create good conditions for insectivores and other predators.

There maybe an initial loss of some animals or their offspring. But that all goes back into the food chain. To ad to that alot of these animals reproduce more than once a year, so if they have missed out now they'll just do it later. These floods will have a great benefit for the environment.

 

[Waterrat]

Gordo, that may be the case in some areas but it's not a norm by any means. The floods in the Gulf country couple of years ago washed off all the top soil and the place is still barren today. No insects, no food chain.

 

[waruikazi]

Gordo, that may be the case in some areas but it's not a norm by any means. The floods in the Gulf country couple of years ago washed off all the top soil and the place is still barren today. No insects, no food chain.

For that to happen i would assume that the landscape in the Gulf would have already been affected by habitat destruction. Was that the case?

I haven't had a good look at where the flooding is in brissy and the rest of QLD but from the news reports it would seem that they are all well known floood zones that do flood on a regular basis (which makes my blood boil that the QLD gov knew this but still allowed development in these areas). That makes me think that all of the natural land scape would be well equipped to deal with the flooding.

 

[moose]

what an interesting Read.

Jonno, some great pics as always..

As i have personally been dealing with floodwaters and recovery efforts myself (Chinchilla Qld) i have been unable to get on here and start a thread, i have already rescued several species of elapid from rising waters as well as Varanus Gouldii and Lacies, mainly young.

There are several reports locally of people having to deal with reptiles in homes/sheds/business's and i have had to assist some in those relocations etc.

I think at the end of the day reptiles will survive however denser human populations means higher floodwaters around towns and more interactions between Human and reptiles.

To ALL those affected by floodwaters my heart goes out to you and with first hand experience of the devastation i am one of the lucky ones.

Cheers

Moose

 

[Waterrat]

The Gulf country didn't suffer from any made-made habitat destruction, it was a fragile dry sclerophyll forest and the floods devastated it.

I thing the Brisbane and other flood affected areas will recover quickly though, the geomorphology is very different there. Residential development in flood prone areas is a common sight all along the east coast. If Cairns had a cyclone or a tsunami coincided with the summer high tides, half of the city would go under. High-set homes on poles are not fashionable today - what a mistake!

 

[waruikazi]

The Gulf country didn't suffer from any made-made habitat destruction, it was a fragile dry sclerophyll forest and the floods devastated it.

I thing the Brisbane and other flood affected areas will recover quickly though, the geomorphology is very different there. Residential development in flood prone areas is a common sight all along the east coast. If Cairns had a cyclone or a tsunami coincided with the summer high tides, half of the city would go under. High-set homes on poles are not fashionable today - what a mistake!

I'm straying off topic but the thing that got my goat is that in the 74 floods 7000 homes got inundated, this year is 11000 homes, that's 5000 extra homes that could have been saved if they were built in more appropriate areas. In cyclone zones you have to build to the cyclone std to minimise risk, in flood zones there should either be no development or, like you say, Queenslander style houses or houses atleast built to withstand what can happen.

 

[Waterrat]

I just hope everyone that has had their homes affected have insurance.

xxxx

 

[waruikazi]

off topic

 

[Jay84]

.

 

[shellfisch]

How are these people to rebuild their lives?

I'm hoping this is where donations and telethon dollars etc will go...?

Sorry to hijack the thread....