Herping Trip # 3 - Back to the Mallee

[jordo]

Still no field herping section so it'll soon be lost...
Just got back from the mallee in SW NSW, we were trapping at a couple of sheep stations near Pooncarie :lol:
At the homestead we stayed at there were plenty of frogs out at night (we were right on the Darling River)

This tree overhanging a dam was thick with peron's tree frogs

Can't remember what this species was, we got two similar species but this one was fairly large, the other I think was L. tasmaniensis it was a bit smaller with a light vertebral stripe.

Plenty of Gehyra variegata at the homestead picking off all the moths and other insects.

During the day the garden was crawling with Cyptoblepharus carnabyi

Also found a nice grasshopper in what we called the beer garden.

Now onto the trapping...

Most of what we caught were juveniles, including this little mallee dragon Ctenophorus fordi

We got plenty of cute little Ningaui yvonneae

My first ever burton's was this stunner!

Strophurus intermedius

A nicely patterned young painted dragon, Ctenophorus pictus

We constantly coped these orb weaver webs and sometimes even the owners in the face, not a very pleasent experience at 6am in the morning :lol:

Caught heaps of these large scorpians in the pitfall buckets, very impressive critters.

Our most commonly caught reptile and still one of the highlights of the trip for me were these desert skinks, Egernia inornata

We were lucky to get a narrow banded sand swimmer, Eremiascincus fasciolatus

Got a couple of these blind snakes during the week, Ramphotyphlops bituberculatus

Another burton's, more plain than the first.

Towards the end of the week we we're getting plenty of young sand goannas, Varanus gouldii

Common dunnart, Sminthopsis murina

One of the smaller skinks you'll see, Menetia greyii

A young yellow-faced whip snake, Demansia psammophis, very fiesty little snake, this one was only about 15cm long.

Another sand goanna.

And a very impressive juv Ctenotus atlas to finish things off. We also got regius and brachyonyx but I posted them after my first mallee field trip if you want to see them.

Hope you like them

 

[Daniel_Penrith]

nice, i like the dunnart!! traps?? what traps do you use??

 

[python blue]

Great pics sound like u had a great time love those sandies and the desert skinks

 

[pugsly]

Wow impressive! Some nice finds there indeed.

The second Burton's looks blue? Its gorgeous.

Nice photo's thanks for sharing, few of those Lizards look a little underweight, still bad drought I guess.

 

[jordo]

Daniel we used pitfall traps, basically a row of buckets dug under a small fence, the animal goes along the fence until it falls into a bucket. This was done under a permit for scientific research.

 

[bredli84]

great pics jordo. i love the malley, such a beautiful place.

 

[Daniel_Penrith]

Oh ok kool, did you use any other methods?

 

[scam7278]

cool pics jordo

 

[ryanharvey1993]

wow awsome pics you found alot. that whip snake is a beauty. love the desert skinks and the burtons aswell

 

[levis04]

well done. love the inornata!!!!!

 

[MoreliaMatt]

too bad when the burtons and the small skinks and geckos fall in the same trap!
or the sandies and the dunnarts etc

great finds and great pics!

 

[cockney red]

Great pics mate looks like you had a great time.

 

[GraftonChic]

very nice

 

[Kurto]

Awesome photos, lovin the pic of the spiny tail.

 

[mysnakesau]

What a lovely collection of photos. That first pic of the mousie thing is familiar - someone brought one of them into the park, nobody knew what it was. Then I never asked what they did with it

 

[Rocket]

Great looking animals indeed. Love the Burtons and the geckos.

Wish herping trips similar to this were carried out in SA more often.

 

[jordo]

The second Burton's looks blue? Its gorgeous.

Nice photo's thanks for sharing, few of those Lizards look a little underweight, still bad drought I guess.

That burtons basically appears how it looked, very nice indeed.
Most of the lizards were in top condition with nice fat tails etc, the only animal in bad nick was a Tree Dtella riddled with red mites and very skinny with not much fat in the tail, this gecko was found in a hollow log so it serves it right for not living in its natural habitat (in or on a house) :lol:

Oh ok kool, did you use any other methods?

We only used pitfalls this trip, but last trip I went on with the same crew we used Elliot traps as well which are small metal traps baited to try and catch marsupials. Other commonly used trapping methods for reptiles include funnel traps which are like those opera nets used for yabbies, these are pinned so they're flush along a small drift fence, similar to pitfalls but they aren't dug in so are often used in very fragile habitats to avoid disturbance, however pitfalls are more effective and generally the preferred method.

Wish herping trips similar to this were carried out in SA more often.

I'm sure many are, you just need to keep an ear out for them.

 

[hornet]

very nice jordo, get any more pics of the scorps?

 

[jordo]

Hornet, I was going to get you some scorps but wasn't really prepared with containers sorry. We encountered 3 species: huge, medium and small (looked like marbled scorp?) didn't get any pics of the other two because they weren't as common but these pics are of the huge ones.
Also here's another frog we got. I think the first pic I posted is L. fletcheri and this guy is L. tasmaniensis (occured in a pond in the garden and was smaller than the other species)but I'll need to confirm this.

 

[hornet]

no worries, always a next time. I really need to get out to the mallee myself sometime, its amazing