Sur, Oman. Oct 2013

Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

moloch05

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2006
Messages
772
Reaction score
8
Omani Flag:
flag_zps35f005cb.jpg


After leaving Salalah, we drove 1100km up to Sur. We again passed through the empty quarter before turning northeast at Adam. Along the way, we passed the enormous sea of dunes known as the Wahiba Sands. A storm blew through and before long, we could hardly see the road due to blowing sand. Fortunately, we were able to get through this without problem. The long drive was not a problem since the roads were good and the speed limit was usually 120kph.

Map:
map_zps71be1b96.jpg


In the Sur area, we visited rocky headlands at Ras Al Hadd and Ras Al Rhabbah (B), the Wahiba Sands (D) and Wadi Tiwi (C), a scenic gully with towering hillsides.
map2_zpsc7dc12ad.jpg



Sur Harbour. The waterfront was very nice or old Arab buildings and a watch tower. Several dhows were anchored or under repairs here.
Sur1_zps9abe34e5.jpg

Sur2_zps9f4c447f.jpg

dhow1_zps362f6b0d.jpg


Ted’s shots of the harbour area.
SurTED3_zps7bc15be8.jpg

surTED7_zps632099ee.jpg


Here is a Sinai Rock Agama (Pseudotrapelus sinaitus) or recent split. It completely ignored the Laughing Dove that walked nearby (Ted's photo).
bluerockagamaTED1_zpsb66592fa.jpg



Turtle Beach Resort. This would be a nice place to stay with the possibility of seeing nesting Green Turtles. The only problem would be the isolation. It was about an hour back to Sur where there was a much better choice of restaurants and shops.
Ted’s shot of Turtle Beach.
SurTurtleBeachTED_zpscde9dc4a.jpg


Ted's lovely shot of a dhow in the bay near Turtle Beach Resort. The water was so warm and clear. It would have been ideal for a snorkel but we did not have time and continued on with our hunt for birds and reptiles.
SurTED4_zps0c3a28d0.jpg



Desert Race-runner (Mesalina adramitana). We saw several of these lizards near Turtle Beach Hotel. They were fast but not overly shy.
DesertRace-runnerHadramutSandLizard2_zps92fc9c90.jpg

DesertRacerunner4_zpsab9712f3.jpg

Shade was in short supply so this one ran to the shadow of my boot.
DesertRacerunner6_zpsa743bd6e.jpg

DesertRacerunner5_zps0e5bfd9e.jpg


... Desert Race-runner and Carter’s Semaphore Gecko habitat:
daygecko1habitat_zps5a935013.jpg



Carter's Semaphore Gecko (Pristurus carteri). These were common lizards on rocks near the Turtle Beach Resort.
daygecko4_zpsd468cc48.jpg

daygecko3_zpsfe3266bf.jpg

daygecko5_zps632325b1.jpg

daygecko2_zps93d4fa68.jpg

daygecko1_zps25d2b5dd.jpg

Ted's photo:
daygeckoTED1_zps46810466.jpg


Here is a shot of me photographing the gecko. As you can see, the geckos were not very shy although they could run fast when they wanted to.
me1_zps9c15916c.jpg



We visited the Ras Al Hadd area for birds. This area was great for waders with the best species being the big Crab Plover.
habitat2_zpsb504cbde.jpg


Here is a mix of Lesser Sand Plover, a few Greater Sand Plovers, a Ruddy Turnstone and a few Kentish Plovers.
wadersTED1_zpsd3fa6d38.jpg


We saw several Crab Plovers in the estuary below the mosque.
crabploversite_zpsb2256abd.jpg


Ted’s shot of the mosque:
SurTED5_zpsbc24e04e.jpg



Tamarisk is native to the area and it only grew as isolated small trees.
tamarisk_zps6ee9b0cd.jpg


Habitat of Eastern Sand Geckos, Least Semaphore Geckos and Desert Race-runners.
LeastSemaphoreGeckoPristurusminimus20habitata_zpsf18e2037.jpg



Least Semaphore Gecko (Pristurus minimus): This was a new gecko to us. It looked and acted like a small lacertid. It was fast but occasionally lifted its tail over its back like other Pristurus sp. It tended to race from one shrub to the cover of another. After I took a few photos, I lost it as it zipped off to another shrub.
LeastSemaphoreGeckoPristurusminimus21_zpsc3b06e65.jpg

LeastSemaphoreGeckoPristurusminimus23_zpsce2d6982.jpg

daygecko22_zps7ce23b8a.jpg

LeastSemaphoreGeckoPristurusminimus20_zps73c8fe03.jpg


Rock Semaphore Gecko (Prirustrus rupestris). Only saw a few of these in this area.
daygecko6_zpsd53e042e.jpg




Ras Al Khabbah is a famous site for watching seabirds. We did not find many of the species but did see distant Persian Shearwaters, a variety of terns and many migrating gulls.
habitat3_zps99e6cbf9.jpg

habitatseawatch1_zpsb1817c42.jpg


… Ted sea watching.
Ted_zps9548569d.jpg

houses2_zps7dfe4c12.jpg


Baluch's Ground Gecko (Bunopus tuberculatus). These were speedsters that looked and acted much like Bynoe's Gecko (Heteronotia binoei) in Australia.
BaluchsGroundGecko2_zpsd4a9431c.jpg

BaluchsGroundGecko1_zps91e05164.jpg

BaluchsGroundGecko4_zps5a63ab63.jpg



... I will post more photos from the Sur area tomorrow night.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks, Slowwy.

Eastern Sand Gecko (Stenodactylus leptocosymbotes). These were common geckos especially on flats with a mixture of gravel and sand. We found a number of these whenever we walked this type of habitat at night.
EasternSandGeckoStenodactylusleptocosymbotes1_zps10af4ea7.jpg

EasternSandGeckoStenodactylusleptocosymbotes40_zps007d9f68.jpg

EasternSandGeckoStenodactylusleptocosymbotes2_zpsf9cc221a.jpg

EasternSandGeckoStenodactylusleptocosymbotes41_zpsb0e60ad0.jpg


This was a largish and active carab beetle. One of my FB friends identified it as a Domino Beetle (Anthia duodecimgutatta). It lived on the same dunes as the Eastern Sand Geckos.:
Carab1_zps8c16e3c5.jpg



One night, we drove about 120km southwest of Sur to a gravel road that approached the Wahiba Dunes near Bidiyah. We drove as far as it was safe and then walked from there. We never actually reached the big dunes but we did walk through an area of small dunes that were separated by gravel flats. In general, it is difficult to actually get into the dunes without a 4x4. Sandy habitats were much more accessible in the UAE where paved roads crossed dune fields.

Spider: This one was big and agressive. It would jump at me whenever I took a photo.
spider2_zpsbe769e3e.jpg


Eastern Sand Geckos also lived on the dunes but they were more common on gravel flats.
EasternSandGeckoStenodactylusleptocosymbotes10_zps075c87b7.jpg

EasternSandGeckoStenodactylusleptocosymbotes20_zps22f2649b.jpg



Sand Gecko sp. (Stenodactylus sp): The geckos were common on the dunes. The third shot was typical of how we first observed them near the base of shrubs.
ArabianDuneGecko1_zpsfa4984ab.jpg

ArabianDuneGecko2_zpscecd40c2.jpg

ArabianDuneGecko3_zpsb8aff9e6.jpg



The feet of these looked so different here when compared with the webbed-footed species in the UAE. The upper photos are from the Wahiba Sands and the lower photos are of an Arabian Sand Gecko (Stenodactylus arabicus) from Al Ain, UAE. I found out from a FB friend that the Wahiba Sands geckos are a known but undescribed species of Stenodactylus. For now, they go by the name of S. cf. arabicus.
ArabianDuneGecko4zz_zps2b431968.jpg

ArabianDuneGecko4zzz_zpsb2df31ef.jpg




Dune Sand Gecko (Stenodactylus doriae): These geckos also looked different to those in the Al Ain area of the UAE. I thought at first that they were S. slevini due to the crescent marking on the nape but according the the Stenodactylus paper that I read, the species does not occur in the Wahiba Sands.

... upper shot from Wahiba Sands, lower shot from Al Ain, UAE.
ArabianSandGecko1_zps128332bd.jpg

SlevinsSandGeckoStenodactylusslevini2_zps946f1dc9.jpg

Stenodactylusslevini1a_zps7c6351ae.jpg

SlevinsSandGeckoStenodactylusslevini3_zps7b7b4ced.jpg

SlevinsSandGeckoStenodactylusslevini1_zpsd98833de.jpg


Baluch's Ground Gecko (Bunopus tuberculatus): We found one on the edge of the dunes where they met the gravel flats.
BaluchsGroundGecko3_zps21e34a03.jpg



Cheesman's Gerbil. These little rodents were abundant on the dunes. They looked and acted much like Kangaroo Rats in the deserts of California. We trapped one on a gravel flat and prevented it from running back to its burrow in the dunes. After a few attempts, it decided to get out of trouble by digging. It did not take long for it to completely disappear but it would periodically emerge to see if we were still there.
CheesemansGerbilGerbilluscheesmani6_zps317a39f9.jpg

CheesemansGerbil10_zps2c862a43.jpg

CheesemansGerbilGerbilluscheesmani7_zps03dc3646.jpg


burrow with trails. The trails extended for many meters from the burrow so it seems that they use the same paths whenever they emerge. Must be easy for Arabian Horned Vipers to find and feed on these animals.
CheesemansGerbilGerbilluscheesmani9_zps8c06488e.jpg







Wadi Kiwi. We birded this area but did not take any reptile shots. We did see the common little Rock Semaphore Geckos, a Sinai Rock Agama (or recent split) and one of two snakes recorded on the trip. The snake vanished into cover before we could either catch or photograph it. The Wadi looked like a good place to explore at night.
TawiKiwiTED_zps1db357a9.jpg

habitatwaditiwi_zps589d6520.jpg

habitat5_zps23b7a219.jpg


Ted's shot of the side mirror on the car.
CarTED1_zps42a7d8ae.jpg
 
I've been studying the paper "A review of the geckos of the genus Hemidactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Oman based on morphology, mitochondrial and nuclear data, with descriptions of eight new species" and think that I have names for some of the geckos. Hemidactylus is diverse in Oman with many representatives including a number of newly described species. They are a confusing lot!


These boldly marked animals with tubercles from the monsoonal forest with baobabs in the mountains above Mirbat (northwest of Salalah) were probably Hemidactylus alkiyumii.
Hemidactylusalkiyumii2a_zps8bd9a52c.jpg

Hemidactylusalkiyumii1a_zpseb246908.jpg



These boldly marked animals without tubercles from the dry, coastal plain northeast of Salalah I think to be Hemidactylus paucituberculatus
Hemidactylussp42_zpsaa01b832.jpg



These smooth skin animals from a dry wadi in the mountains southwest of Salalah I think to be Hemidactylus homeolepis.
Hemidactylushomoeolepis12a_zps5ca1e489.jpg

Hemidactylussp11_zps3ade5454.jpg




I found that the fan-fingered geckos in Salalah have indeed been split from their northern relatives. These have the name Ptyodactylus dhofarensis.
Pytodactylus1_zpsea05e605.jpg

Pytodactylus2_zps5a357632.jpg



Ted's shot of an old fort at Mirbat:
castlemirbatTED_zpsd83f87f4.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Another wonderful account with stunning photography. I particularly like the architecture and gecko close-ups, especially the feet. 8)
I'm very impressed with the number and variety of herps that you managed to find there David. I'm also amazed that so many delicate creatures like geckos survive there, with temperatures reaching as high as 50°C in summer! It looks like there's nowhere to escape the heat. Do you know where they might seek shelter from such extremes of very high temps and severely dry conditions?
 
Might just be weird but I love the mirror shot -- I assume it says (objects in the rear-view mirror may appear closer than they are ) Also a great Meatloaf song :)
 
Thanks, Bushman and Rodney/Sue.

The lizards in Oman were certainly heat tolerant. We saw Semaphore Geckos active in the open when temps were in the 30s.

This agama absolutely amazed Ted and I. We found it when crossing the empty quarter on our way north. The air temp was in the low 40Cs so the asphalt must have been nearly 50C or so, yet the lizard appeared to be basking! I just came across another name for these agamas in Oman. It appears that the Yellow-spotted Agama was split earlier this year and the Omani representatives would be Trapelus jayakari. Looks like reptile classification in Oman and the UAE is in a state of flux. There should be a new field guide to reptiles out before long. It was scheduled for this past summer but has been delayed. I imagine that all the taxonomical changes must be causing problems.
agama6_zps9aaca148.jpg



... another shot of the Desert Racerunner
DesertRace-runnerHadramutSandLizard1_zpsea294261.jpg
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top