# Herping in the Alps part 2



## jordo (May 22, 2008)

This time I went up to Mt. Kosciusko as part of a Botany trip for uni in Feb.

On the way to the first site we stopped to check out Little River Gorge, the largest gorge in Victoria, very impressive.






The first stop was in a mixed white box and white cypress pine dominated community near Suggan Buggan, Vic where we camped the first night right on the Snowy River.
The lighter plants are the white box eucalypts and the darker patches are the cypress pines.





View of the Snowy River, the weather was ok so we went for a bit of a swim in the arvo when we arrived.





I went for a walk hoping for a few frogs but it yielded nothing (although I could hear them calling), we had some cheeky visitors around the camp site foraging for left-overs.





In the morning we were greeted by a male emu with one of his young taggging along behind (no pics).





I saw a couple of reptiles including, a garden skink, plenty of copper tailed skinks too fast to catch, a gippsland water dragon and a massive, very aggressive cunningham (no pics sorry )
After we left the woodlands to go to the sub-alpine habitat I saw a beautiful yellow blotched bluey on the road, but we didn't stop for it (it's very hard to convince a botanist to stop for an awesome looking lizard).

A short stop at 1400m above sea level to classify the eucalyptus species revealled this little guy, my first ever mountain dragon which sparked some interest from the students and even some of the botany staff 





In Kosciusko park we stayed in cabbins and were visited by roos which the owners fed.





We finally got out into the sub-alpine habitat. We walked past Blue Lake.





Found this little native bee? beside the path.





Whilst on the insect topic the typical insects include this metallic green roach and the alpine grasshopper (both very striking).









Southern water skinks were common around the rocky streams, I also saw one E. koscioskoi but couldn't get any pics of it.





Some more scenery...





Note the grey snow patch along the left side of the ridge in this shot, the snow is deposited on the south side and protected from the sun so it takes a lot longer to melt (only fully melted a few weeks before we got there)





During one of our walks I noticed this hare trying to mimick a rock by the look of it, was able to get very close before it dashed away.





Was lucky enough to see about 10 White-lips this trip, usually quite flicky this guy sat still for one good shot.





And given our study sites were very close to Guthega it was no suprise we found plenty of _Egernia guthega_


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## hozy6 (May 22, 2008)

awesome shots i used to live near mt Kosciusko it was an amazing place full of vens


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## Tim.Arm (May 22, 2008)

*awsome shoots you got there. It looks like a nice place.*


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## moloch05 (May 22, 2008)

Great pics and story, jordo. I have never seen a roach like that -- pretty amazing insect. The Guthega Skink was a nice one. It is good to hear that they are common in that area.

What was making the ripples in the "some more scenery shots" pic? Did you see Platypus?


Regards,
David


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## krissy78 (May 22, 2008)

gr8 photo's you could make a unique calender out of those. thanks for sharing


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## DanTheReptileMan (May 22, 2008)

Beautiful snake!
I want one!
All gr8 pics


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## jordo (May 22, 2008)

moloch05 said:


> Great pics and story, jordo. I have never seen a roach like that -- pretty amazing insect. The Guthega Skink was a nice one. It is good to hear that they are common in that area.
> 
> What was making the ripples in the "some more scenery shots" pic? Did you see Platypus?
> 
> ...



Thanks for the replies, a Platypus would have been nice (do they occur in the alps?) but the ripples were caused by people attempting to skip stones on the water.
That lake is the one you can see in the snow patch shot, we walked along the ridge then cut down into the valley.

Can't believe I didn't post a Pseudomoia! This guy peering out of a crack is P. entrecaustauxii, once again very common good tucker for the white-lips.


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## Vincent21 (May 22, 2008)

Awesome pictures, looks like you had a great day.


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## callith (May 22, 2008)

very nice photos


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## jase75 (May 22, 2008)

Love the White Lipped Snake, awesome find !!!!


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## Cheesecake (May 23, 2008)

Great pics as usual. Now I'll really have to force myself to get up there once the snow melts!

There are Platypus in the alps including higher up on Mt. Kosciusko.

Dave.


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## smacdonald (May 23, 2008)

That roach is amazing!

Stewart


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## ryanharvey1993 (May 25, 2008)

nice pics once again, that white lipped is a stunner


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