# Kuringai Chase NP



## Luke1 (Sep 27, 2008)

hey all! today is the first day of many that i will be running around Kuringai chase NP trying to find reptiles...so this should be updated almost daily unless i got to the beach or somewhere else as to when i can't go herping in the park!

anyway today i went with Riley on this forum and we were running around looking for stuff in heaps of rocks and stuff (so i didn't take pics of the habitat) and found lacie pop and it had bones in it and teeth! we found 4 speices of reptiles/amphibian today!

1) Red crowned todlet - _Pseudophryne australis_
2) red throated skink - _Bassiana platynotum - got away before we could get the camera out_
_3) garden skink - Lampropholis guichenoti_
_4) eastern bearded dragon - Pogona barbata_


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## ryanharvey1993 (Sep 27, 2008)

brilliant pics luke  looks like a great herp, lucky to see the red crowned toadlet. cant wait to come down.


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## Luke1 (Sep 27, 2008)

thanks man! thanks for letting me use ya account to! yea i almost flattened him with my shoe HAHA!!!!! he was tiny!


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## Fiona74 (Sep 27, 2008)

Nice to see the beardie smiled for the camera!


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## bump73 (Sep 27, 2008)

Nice pics

The Beardie looks so happy to see you guys:lol:

Ben


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## Riley (Sep 27, 2008)

haha yeah the beardie was great!!! best part imo

im probably going there again tomorrow


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## Luke1 (Sep 27, 2008)

here are some shots i got the other day of some stuff about 1km out of the park...ie...MY HOUSE 
got a few broad tails and eastern common froglets running around my place:

1) eastern common froglet - _Crinia signifera_
2) broad tail gecko - _Phyllurus platurus_































Luke


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## Luke1 (Sep 27, 2008)

dino the horse: LOL...yea!

bump73: he does eh! very happy HAHA!

Riley: c u there then!! im going abit further down again!


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## ryanharvey1993 (Sep 27, 2008)

those leaf tailed gecko pics are awsome! you really just have to rub it in dont you  I wish there where geckos at my house.


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## Australis (Sep 27, 2008)

Theres plenty to find there and in the nearby high school
where snakes tend to take up residence during school
holidays -


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## Luke1 (Sep 27, 2008)

Ryan: yep! i sure do! you always rub it in that you see all these different snakes and stuff HAHAHA!!!!

Australis: yea there is...just hope the teachers aint around otherwise im gonna be in big trouble when term 4 starts LOL! yea im gonna be looking around there after running around through the park!


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## Australis (Sep 27, 2008)

You might find more if you walk lol


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## Luke1 (Sep 27, 2008)

LOL...you know what i mean!


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## ryanharvey1993 (Sep 27, 2008)

luke, check that ridge we climbed up, there might be stuff about since its warmer now. also you should check the cunningham spot to. if they where there in winter I doubt they will have moved


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## Luke1 (Sep 27, 2008)

yea i'll have a look probs on monday or something! tomoz i plan on being around the kalakari center place but not in the horrible place! yea they will be there for sure! theres a colony of about 10 adults and several babies (last time i was there in summer)


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## moloch05 (Sep 28, 2008)

Great photos. It looks like you are having an excellent break. I really like those toadlets.

Regards,
David


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## froggyboy86 (Sep 28, 2008)

Great photos, I love the Red Crowns. Don't think I've ever seen one with that much red on it. Nice beardie photos too, for some reason I've never seen any around southern Sydney. 

Aaron


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## mattmc (Sep 28, 2008)

dont forget to disinfect the soles of your shoes before you go out next! and every time after that....


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## Luke1 (Sep 28, 2008)

Moloch: thanks...yea its great! no more work for 2 weeks YAY!!!! yea they are pretty cool...although it wasn't the most exciting thing (as in to get photos with and that) it was definatley the highlight of the trip! especially because they are rare and hard to find!

froggyboy: yea he more orange then red but yea...he had alot on him! thanks!

Mattmc: how do i do that? and why?

uploading pics shorty of todays stuff !

Luke


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## froggyboy86 (Sep 28, 2008)

Luke I think Matt is referring to disinfecting equipment because of chytrid fungus. It's a water borne fungus that attacks frogs and has been implicated in the decline (and possible extinction) of several Australian species as well as others around the world. Red Crowned Toadlets are listed as Vulnerable in NSW so precautions need to be taken around their sites - there are also other threatened and vulnerable frogs in Kuringgai NP.

Best thing to do is make up a solution of diluted household bleach and add some salt (chytrid has been shown to have low tolerance for salt) and soak any nets, the soles of your shoes etc in this and then rinse with tap water. That way you reduce the risk of you transporting chytrid fungus from one area to another (or any other disease causing organism).

Hope that helps,

Aaron


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## mattmc (Sep 28, 2008)

Spot on Aaorn, hit the nail on the head !


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## ryanharvey1993 (Sep 28, 2008)

luke hurry up with the whites skink pics 

and for mattmc and froggyboy86 (bit of topic) I am going out to warrumbungle national park for a few days and then I am going to ku-ring-gai after that for a few days, will I have to wash the soles of my boots before I go to sydney or will it not matter?


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## froggyboy86 (Sep 28, 2008)

ryanharvey1993 said:


> luke hurry up with the whites skink pics
> 
> and for mattmc and froggyboy86 (bit of topic) I am going out to warrumbungle national park for a few days and then I am going to ku-ring-gai after that for a few days, will I have to wash the soles of my boots before I go to sydney or will it not matter?


 
I highly reccommend you clean your boots/shoes before you go to a new site. Especially from the Warrumbungles to Kuringgai. It's not just chytrid fungus that can be transported on shoes but any kind of virus, bacteria or fungus. I'm not sure how much of an issue it is for snakes, but there are diseases in frogs cropping up all the time and its important to minimise the spread.

The Warrumbungles is awesome, there are lots of skinks in the park. Particularly E. saxtilis.

Aaron


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## mattmc (Sep 28, 2008)

what he said


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## ClareB (Sep 28, 2008)

Super photo's guys, love the first frog pics and the beardie shots are great. Look forward to seeing more!


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## mattmc (Sep 28, 2008)

Look. To be 100% honest, you should clean (disinfect like frogboy86) after every trip. Your soles of your shoes....nets....equipment...etc. which means if your shoes were submerged...you should completely disinfect it. so what if the site may not have the fungus/virus/disease....you arent to know....so as the old folks say..."BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY"


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## Luke1 (Sep 28, 2008)

ok! yea i guess so! my shoes weren't submerged in water or anything but yea!

pics coming up!


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## Luke1 (Sep 28, 2008)

ok today wasn't the best but this is what i found!

1) whites skink - Egernia Whitti
2) blackish blind snake - ramphotyphlops Nigrescens


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## ryanharvey1993 (Sep 28, 2008)

nice shots luke, I can never get focused blind snake pics, it looks massive! cant wait to see what you see tomorrow. I will try get out herping again today or maybe go for a night drive tonight if I can talk mum into it


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## Luke1 (Sep 28, 2008)

LOL...blind snakes move to much! LOL!!!! yea as i told ya he was pretty big! im going to night in a place where i found a burtons afew years back...hopefully i may find some and some geckos! then im gonna try get my parents ie my dad to take me to kuringai after that so we can try spot some stuff on the roads and off some of the fire trails!


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## Riley (Sep 28, 2008)

good pics! where abouts did u go?


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## Luke1 (Sep 28, 2008)

i told u by pm Riley  on the fire trail!


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## Riley (Sep 28, 2008)

oh i didnt see that bit lol.


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## Luke1 (Sep 29, 2008)

ok heres the stuff i saw today!
1) a few adult lacies
2) what i think was 3 baby sandies...but not sure
3) poor little heath monitor (i'll post story after this!)

monitor tracks



































and to think you could throw it at a huge rock 

Luke


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## ryanharvey1993 (Sep 29, 2008)

brilliant pictures luke. that poor heath monitor, some people make me SO angry!


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## Chris1 (Sep 29, 2008)

thats awesome, i didnt realise there was so much to be seen,..!!

love the beardy shots!!!


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## Riley (Sep 29, 2008)

awesome shots!! i think it would of been a lacie but yeah poor little bugger!! :cry:


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## Chris1 (Sep 29, 2008)

OMG, that heath monitor is stunning!

how could those horrible kids do that!


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## shane14 (Sep 29, 2008)

good stuff Luke


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## Luke1 (Sep 29, 2008)

Chris: thats what i keep saying! hes getting alot better...haven't tried to feed him yet..but hes racing around the tank!

ok...as i said i ould post what happened...

i went riding up to kuringai to see if i could find any stuff today...i was walking around all the fire trails and didn't have much luck...i saw some weird stuff bolt off into the undergrowth and was cinda angry about that! anyway i went down one and found all these lacie tracks (as in pic) and then looked ahead...and you guessed it...there he was...he bolted up a tree (as in pics) and then i smelt this horrible stench of dead stuff...turned out there was fox baits in the area and it killed one...i went and burried it so the lacie didn't eat him and die...

anyway the stuff goes on...couldn't find much and felt like getting some air in my face so road down to the park...i knew where some cunninghams were so thought i would go see if i could get a few sots of em...but before i reached there...i saw 4 kids (roughly around the age of 10) and they were throwing something at the rock...i sorta had memories cause i used to do that...but as i looked they picked up the same thing and the little goanna happened to be the victem...ive never jumped off a bike the way i did today...i lept off so quickly my handle bar got knocked out of place and i couldn't fix it until i got home...anyway i raced in and started swearing my head off at the little kids and grabbed the monitor...i was helling so much one of them burst into tears but i didn't care! i took him over to some of the more rock parts and his eyes were rolling back into him head and he couldn't stand...i had a water bottle with me and flushed him with a bit of water...he didn't particularly like that so i drank some then pored the rest out and stuck him in there (it was the only thing i had) and i bit several holes into the bottle so he could breath....and then i had to ride up :| what a flog with the handle bars moving side to side and forwards and so on! it sicked...i stopped roughly ever 10 min to open the cap and let abit more air get into the bottle...i stopped at my friends house cause he had a spare tank and so i dropped him off there then took my jackies out of there enclosure and stuck them in a box and hes in there enclosure!

Cheers,

Luke


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## Luke1 (Sep 29, 2008)

Ryan...i still gotta upload some LOL!!!!


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## ryanharvey1993 (Sep 29, 2008)

edit: luke do you need my photobucket link?

hey luke, you did the right thing. the thing that makes it worse about what they are doing is that heath monitors are a threatened species. imagine what these kids will be like when they are older if they are doing something like that at that age. only think you shoulda done was picked them up and thrown them into a rock


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## Luke1 (Sep 29, 2008)

LOL...i should of! HOW WOULD U LIKE IT IF YOU WERE THE VICTEM...WAM...WAM...WAM...***little kids run off crying***


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## Luke1 (Sep 30, 2008)

hey guys! good news about the heath monitor! ive had a look at him and he has no cuts and stuff...and hes eaten a little skink i put in there...hes gone from not running around being all slugish and stuff to being a spastic little bugger trying to bite the crap out of me! i'll get pics of where i put him and stuff!!!!

Luke


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## Chris1 (Sep 30, 2008)

thats awesome Luke!
i'm so glad theres still good people out there!

i've got a tonne of worm and roaches if ya wanna feed him up a bit,...just let me know, i'll drop em round.


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## Luke1 (Sep 30, 2008)

Chris...i think its best just o get him away from people asap...but thanks for the offer! hes a nervous little reck! but not a fraid to bite LOL!!!


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## Chris1 (Sep 30, 2008)

no worries Luke!!
i think he'd probably appreciate ur way of thinking!! 

hope when hes big and strong he eats some 10 year olds!


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## Luke1 (Sep 30, 2008)

ryanharvey1993 said:


> edit: luke do you need my photobucket link?


 
yes please


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## mattmc (Sep 30, 2008)

isnt that heath monitor just the cutest lil thing you ever seen?


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## $NaKe PiMp (Sep 30, 2008)

i was in the ku ring gai NP on the weekend luke,and i found a nice diamond


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## $NaKe PiMp (Sep 30, 2008)

have a look in this thread
http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/...utiful-wild-diamond-in-the-hornsby-area-92447


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## ryanharvey1993 (Sep 30, 2008)

Luke1 said:


> yes please


 
there you go 

http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii52/ryanharveyherper/


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## Luke1 (Sep 30, 2008)

photos coming up guys!


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## Luke1 (Sep 30, 2008)

ok guys!
today i found a few cool things but had trouble getting photos of everything...the pics are hopeless but better then nothing

1) eastern water skinks PICS 
2) mountain dragons - escaped into leaf litter
3) garden skinks - boring and run away - no photos
4) eastern tiger snake - escaped under a log and across the river before i could get a pic











theres a large tadpole in this pic 














might be able to see him but theres a water skink on the rock




and another


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## Luke1 (Sep 30, 2008)

snake pimp: i just noticed i had a post from you! yea i saw he was gorgeous! i have no luck with pythons! where abouts were you?


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## ogg666 (Sep 30, 2008)

Hey luke good on ya for saving the little monitor ,well done....lovin your pics as well 
happy herpin


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## Luke1 (Sep 30, 2008)

thanks ogg666! 
you too!


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