# Western QLD trip so far



## hornet (Oct 1, 2007)

G'day, thought i would let you know how i'm going so far. On saturday only saw 2 eastern beardies, then yesterday(sunday) i saw bynoes gecko's, dubious dtela's and a juvie marbled velvet gecko. What looking on trees for arboreal gexs dad drove past and ran over a western hooded scalyfoot. Also found a lerista sp. skink under leaf litter. Also today at the homested came across a 1-1.5m king brown, unfortunatly got away and wasnt game to tail it not knowing where the head was. Will be going out again tonight to try and find some mature marbled velvets and hopefully Diplodactylus sp. gex. Pics coming when i return.

Cheers


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## cris (Oct 1, 2007)

What area are you in? 
Have you nailed many ferals?
A good way to find geckos is to go around flipping stuff, i usually just check the firewood before it gets burnt and usually find a fair few species.

Im looking foward to seeing some pics


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## hornet (Oct 1, 2007)

flipped some timber and found a couple of bynoes. Going hunting tonight, try and get cats, foxes, rabbits and mayb roo's. In South western qld, charliville area. Wanna get a live scaly foot to photograph otherwise will post pics of the roadkill. Also a coule of frogs around and possibly carlia skinks, yet to catch and photograph.


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## Australis (Oct 1, 2007)

How far west are you Hornet, nearest town?

I would be intrested to seee what Carlia you can find, should be some nice ones with breeding males showing great colours, ive found some screamers this season already, if you are into skinks of course! lol


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## hornet (Oct 1, 2007)

charliville or augathella are the nearest towns. Love my skinks, arid dwellers even more then coastal species so loving it out here. I have seen a few which i think are carlia just didnt manage to catch them.


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## Australis (Oct 1, 2007)

I dont know that region at all, 
but i think you might be too far west
for the species im most intrested in like;

_C. vivax C. pectoralis C. schmeltzii_

What ever _Carlia_ you find key them out, 
they can be mongrels to ID from a photo
if you dont have shots from a few angles, 
well has been for me anyways.


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## cris (Oct 1, 2007)

you are in intergrade country maybe, will be interesting to see pics of the beardies. Supprised you havnt seen any sandies or stumpies, they are normally all over the place.


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## hornet (Oct 2, 2007)

I to am suprised i seen no stumpies or sandies. Saw another brown today and managed to snap a pic. Also saw a tree skink yesterday(no book handy so cant recall species) and a ctenotus robustus this morn. Goin out for more gex tonight. Heaps of emus round saw a mother with about 10 chicks which is a real good number, most are in the 3-6 range. Will update tomorrow if i get the chance, cheers.


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## MrSpike (Oct 2, 2007)

Good stuff Johnny boy, I can't wait to see the pics! 

Kane


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## Retic (Oct 2, 2007)

What sort of hunting license do you have ?



hornet said:


> flipped some timber and found a couple of bynoes. Going hunting tonight, try and get cats, foxes, rabbits and mayb roo's. In South western qld, charliville area. Wanna get a live scaly foot to photograph otherwise will post pics of the roadkill. Also a coule of frogs around and possibly carlia skinks, yet to catch and photograph.


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## viridis (Oct 2, 2007)

You dont need one unfortunatley Ash, 

Pitty though, Our native wildlife gets enough of a working over with out clowns shooting roo's at every chance they get.

Let me quess hornet, you would be the first to jump up and down if someone made a post on how they killed a snake?

It really makes you wonder about the intentions of the general public .

Save yourself a couple of bucks in ammo and spare a thought for our NATIVES.


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## Retic (Oct 2, 2007)

My thoughts exactly, a throwaway comment like 'maybe roo's' does make you think. I have no problem with shooting ferals.


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## Kratos (Oct 2, 2007)

Sounds like a fun trip, but im with boa & viridis spare the roo's and kill the ferals


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## Fuscus (Oct 2, 2007)

hornet said:


> ... Heaps of emus round saw a mother with about 10 chicks ....


 father


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## cris (Oct 2, 2007)

viridis said:


> You dont need one unfortunatley Ash,



You actually do legally, roos are protected, you can only kill them if you are a pro roo shooter or get a control permit thingy like virtually every farmer/property owner has. In reality though no one will get prosecuted for killing a roo in the bush just as no one will ever get prosecuted for killing snakes anywhere.

Perhaps Boa could explain the ecological impact of killing a roo vs telling someone thinking about keeping potentially invasive species that they are the best reptiles to keep.


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## bump73 (Oct 2, 2007)

careful all Cris has his cranky pants on today and is taking stabs left right and centre...lol


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## Retic (Oct 2, 2007)

Yes I noticed.


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## hornet (Oct 3, 2007)

we have a damage mitigation permit for the roo's. In good times they breed up and then when times get hard they stave to death because they eat all the feed, also causing farmers stock to die off. We eat what we kill. I do not like the people who just kill for the fun of it and just leave them to rot, we only kill a couple each time we are put, i even know times when hunters have got over 1000 in a week and not harmed the population. Anyway got the first scorps of the trip last night and a rabbit, not much out but will go out again tonight and try and get cats and more bunnies for dinner.


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## Aussie Python Lover (Oct 3, 2007)

Try driving from longreach to mitchell with two screaming kids in the backseat in a ford forte au2 towing a trailer that smells like dead roo cause we couldnt avoid driving over it (had already been killed by semi trailors) Fair enough truckkies can't stop but you would think someone would have a business to get rid of huge road kill like that cause it can cause damage to cars... (and making the exhust smell so bad that your dry reaching everytime you open your window LMAO)


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## cris (Oct 3, 2007)

Any luck catching freshwater crabs hornet?



Aussie Python Lover said:


> Try driving from longreach to mitchell with two screaming kids in the backseat in a ford forte au2 towing a trailer that smells like dead roo cause we couldnt avoid driving over it (had already been killed by semi trailors) Fair enough truckkies can't stop but you would think someone would have a business to get rid of huge road kill like that cause it can cause damage to cars... (and making the exhust smell so bad that your dry reaching everytime you open your window LMAO)



That would be your business to take it off the road... how could you not see a big roo, roo? what stinking great big roadkill roo?(runs around with shirt on head) :lol: no offence intended


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## Aussie Python Lover (Oct 3, 2007)

LOL cris if you have car's coming in the other direction and its right in your pathway cant obviously swerve to miss it then huh would cause more damage with on coming traffic..... Our business to take it off the road??? LMAO good one Should be COUNCILS job oh wait there all to lazy for that...... No offence taken cris


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## Rocket (Oct 3, 2007)

Hurry up and get pics of the Geckos Hornet LOL!!!!


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## hornet (Oct 3, 2007)

have been searching dry creek beds for crabs but no luck. Geckos pics when i return home shawn. Gonna try and get diplo's and oedura tonight. More scorps for sure aswell.


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## cris (Oct 3, 2007)

hornet said:


> have been searching dry creek beds for crabs but no luck. Geckos pics when i return home shawn. Gonna try and get diplo's and oedura tonight. More scorps for sure aswell.



Try the ones with water in them, a bait trap should catch them if you have one or can make something up. I only ever caught them in the larger water wholes in the creek(probably only ever caught 10 or so all up), as the smaller pools seemed to be dominated by crays.


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## Fuscus (Oct 3, 2007)

Aussie Python Lover said:


> ....that smells like dead roo cause we couldn't avoid driving over it ...


Done that near St. George, at night around a bend with on coming traffic. It had been ripening in the sun all day when the front wheel went over it. Went pop. Got to the Gold Coast with blood and offal all over the side of the Honda. and a smell that stayed in the car for over a month
And as for the effect of drought on roos, this feller was just one of many dying near Winton last year.


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## hornet (Oct 6, 2007)

well i'm home, will do a final species count soon but i think it was 5sp of gecko, 5sp of skink, 2 brown snakes, 9 scorps and 1 pede


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## krusty (Oct 6, 2007)

pics of the gecko would be great when you can.


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## hornet (Oct 6, 2007)

got dubious dtella, variegated dtella, bynoes gecko, box patterened gecko and marbled velvet gecko.


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## beardy_boy99 (Oct 6, 2007)

pics wen possible plz, also hope u had a grate trip, sounds like u did!!!


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## hornet (Oct 6, 2007)

yea mate, awsome trip, didnt get much hunting in, just 4 rabbits and 1 roo but the herping was so much fun.


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## beardy_boy99 (Oct 6, 2007)

were did u stay? sounds awesome!, im going up in a couple of weeks and want to do quite a bit of herping(wild and captive)

thanx in advance!!!


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## hornet (Oct 6, 2007)

went out western qld, out past 3-4hrs past roma i think


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## beardy_boy99 (Oct 6, 2007)

o, no way im going that far out, i wont 2 but my mum wants 2 stay near a beach and tropics, can any1 send zoos/national parks with reptiles near surfers paradise? thanx in advance every1

dylan!


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## hornet (Oct 6, 2007)

check out the mountains near the gold coast for herps. Cant remember the name, Mt tamborine is it?


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## beardy_boy99 (Oct 6, 2007)

thanx shall try, any idea wat species up there?


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## mattmc (Oct 6, 2007)

yeh mt tamborine. great place by day. even greater by night. sunshine coast hinterland is great aswell.


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## cris (Oct 6, 2007)

beardy_boy99 said:


> thanx shall try, any idea wat species up there?



garden skinks, carpet pythons, eastern brown snakes, common tree snakes, rbbs, keelbacks, rough scaled snakes, marsh snakes, various frogs, turtles and other stuff. Way too much to list. It might be worth starting a new thread on the topic as its nothing to do with Hornets trip to western Qld.


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## beardy_boy99 (Oct 7, 2007)

yea true, kinda tracked off, thanx anyway cris and mattmc


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