# Introduction, Herping and IDs *pic heavy*



## thepythia (May 23, 2011)

Hey guys/grrls

this is my first post so heres a quick intro.. name is amber, i'm 28 years old and i've just moved to the beautiful cairns. i've been fascinated with reptiles for awhile now but coming from NZ i haven't had any experience with them now i'm having the time of my life . i currently dont have any herps but ive been spending a lot of time herping and researching as much as i can. i would love to have reptiles one day but for now im quite satisfied, theres nothing better than seeing them in their natural habitat.

anyway i'm not too confident on identifying species so i'll give it a go and please correct me where i am wrong. here's some of the things i've seen and been quick enough to get pics of

GTS this guy was hanging out near the balcony one morning.





larger GTS



jungle carpet? found him/her in atherton.





not too sure about this little guy, i initially thought it was a young RBB but he was pinkish underneath and very active late at night, possible small eyed? he was found atherton tablelands.



coastal carpet python





found this spotted python? and 3 brown tree snakes all within 2km stretch of road.
atherton tablelands.








RBB




Scrubbie?






gecko not sure on the species.



chameleon gecko? found on the atherton tablelands



dragons..







boyds forest dragon



monitors.. have about 4 of 5 of them that hang around our house trying to steal the dog food.





frogs.
white lipped tree frog




green tree frog




please identify this for me? found in davies creek national park atherton tablelands.. he was in a very fast flowing creek under a over hanging rock and he was very shy took awhile to get just one photo.


i was hoping it was an armoured mist frog? but considering their status its doubtful?.

barred frog



skinks.



biggest skinks i have ever seen




turtles



saltie



thanks to everyone on this site! spent many hours reading the forums, theres so much great info and a few good laughs too.


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## saximus (May 23, 2011)

Awesome pics Amber. I love the wild Jungle. How many days/nights were these taken over?


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## cactus2u (May 23, 2011)

welcome fellow kiwi. A few of us here. Some nice photos amongst that lot ,good part of the country for herps.... lucky.


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## Smithers (May 23, 2011)

Great variety of reps  I think the Gecko your not sure of species is a Oedura some one else can confirm the full discription for you. Awesome opening post,,,Cheers


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## thepythia (May 23, 2011)

saximus said:


> Awesome pics Amber. I love the wild Jungle. How many days/nights were these taken over?


thanks saximus, these were taken over summer from dec to march. theyre from 3 herping trips i did up here. the RBB and coastal were from brisbane area though back in dec.



cactus2u said:


> welcome fellow kiwi. A few of us here. Some nice photos amongst that lot ,good part of the country for herps.... lucky.


thanks i figured there'd be a few of us 



Smithers said:


> Great variety of reps  I think the Gecko your not sure of species is a Oedura some one else can confirm the full discription for you. Awesome opening post,,,Cheers


thanks smithers i thought it was oedura robusta but thought id leave it to the experts.


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## fugawi (May 23, 2011)

Pics 2, 3 and 5 of the dragons are Eastern Water Dragons, pic 4 is an Eastern Bearded Dragon. The small eyed is probably a RBB, the belly colour can vary.

The second skink is an Eastern Water Skink, possibly the 4th also.


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## gillsy (May 23, 2011)

That's actually a northern tree snake not a green tree snake.


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## Snakeluvver2 (May 23, 2011)

Loving that Cham Gecko!


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## thepythia (May 23, 2011)

fugawi said:


> Pics 2, 3 and 5 of the dragons are Eastern Water Dragons, pic 4 is an Eastern Bearded Dragon. The small eyed is probably a RBB, the belly colour can vary.
> 
> The second skink is an Eastern Water Skink, possibly the 4th also.


 thank you very much. 



gillsy said:


> That's actually a northern tree snake not a green tree snake.


thanks, do you mean the smaller one or the larger one? or both, i thought i was wrong with the smaller one.


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## $NaKe PiMp (May 23, 2011)

heey wow a kiwi not scared of snakes,looks like youve had some great success herping 

im looking at heading up cairns soon


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## XKiller (May 23, 2011)

indeed the 1st common tree is infact a northern tree snake...
2nd looks like a common tree snake, have you got anymore pictures of it? 
unknown snake appears to be a small eyed not a red belly
First skink is Carlia longipes

You have found some very nice animals, esp the chameleon gecko,


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## Carnelian (May 23, 2011)

Hi, love your pics, looks like you have had a ball over the summer. Mind you North QLD is amazing for herping or any kind of wildlife spotting actually.


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## thepythia (May 23, 2011)

ShaneWright said:


> indeed the 1st common tree is infact a northern tree snake...
> 2nd looks like a common tree snake, have you got anymore pictures of it?
> unknown snake appears to be a small eyed not a red belly
> First skink is Carlia longipes
> ...


 
thanks, i was happy to find the cham gecko with his original tail. i have another photo, its a slightly closer shot









Carnelian said:


> Hi, love your pics, looks like you have had a ball over the summer. Mind you North QLD is amazing for herping or any kind of wildlife spotting actually.


 
thanks  yeah NQ definitely is, spend alot of time wildlife spotting and camping, amazing place.



$NaKe PiMp said:


> heey wow a kiwi not scared of snakes,looks like youve had some great success herping
> 
> im looking at heading up cairns soon



ha definitely not scared, to say i love snakes is probably an understatement. i came to cairns for a holiday two years back and saw a couple of snakes in the wild was hooked after that and ended up moving here.


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## REPTILIAN-KMAN (May 23, 2011)

great pic's


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## richoman_3 (May 23, 2011)

Amazing finds !!!
i love the cham gecko!

the 1st skink is a carlia sp.


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## XKiller (May 23, 2011)

sorry picture doesnt work for me.



thepythia said:


> thanks, i was happy to find the cham gecko with his original tail. i have another photo, its a slightly closer shot


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## Naga_Kanya (May 23, 2011)

Gorgeous shots; Cairns is a wonderful place, paradise for wildlife-lovers. I hope you'll keep posting photos!


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## CamdeJong (May 23, 2011)

Some great finds Amber! The unknown is definitely a Small-eyed, characterised by the head shape, greyish colour and there's no colour visible on the flanks. Smaller tree snake is a Northern. I've recently moved to NQ for study and can't wait to get up to the Tablelands and Cairns and see some wild Jungles and Scrubbies. Great photos!


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## gus11 (May 23, 2011)

Definately a small eyed snake
your gecko i would think is an oedura castelnaui, though it is a bit strange looking
your first dragon depending on where you are is likely to be D. australis
your frog is not lorica but litoria nannotis
Your large skink is Bellatorias frerei as is the one next to the longipes
your turtle looks like a krefts


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## thepythia (May 23, 2011)

gus11 said:


> Definately a small eyed snake
> your gecko i would think is an oedura castelnaui, though it is a bit strange looking
> your first dragon depending on where you are is likely to be D. australis
> your frog is not lorica but litoria nannotis
> ...


 
thank you for that. im sorry but i should have mentioned that the gecko was spotted in moogerah peaks national park west of brisbane. my camera didnt really do the colours any justice it was alot brighter purply blue. and thank you for the id on the frog i was hoping for an amoured mist frog but had my suspicions it was a waterfall frog happy with the find though.



CamdeJong said:


> Some great finds Amber! The unknown is definitely a Small-eyed, characterised by the head shape, greyish colour and there's no colour visible on the flanks. Smaller tree snake is a Northern. I've recently moved to NQ for study and can't wait to get up to the Tablelands and Cairns and see some wild Jungles and Scrubbies. Great photos!


 
im quite happy about it being a small eyed ive seen plenty of RBBS in the wild but never a small eyed. the tablelands are great! ive got a few spots that ive never failed to see snakes.



ShaneWright said:


> sorry picture doesnt work for me.


 
sorry im still new to using a forum i uploaded it on image shack and it doesnt seem to be working will suss it out and re post, thanks.



gus11 said:


> Definately a small eyed snake
> your gecko i would think is an oedura castelnaui, though it is a bit strange looking
> your first dragon depending on where you are is likely to be D. australis
> your frog is not lorica but litoria nannotis
> ...


 
thank you for that. im sorry but i should have mentioned that the gecko was spotted in moogerah peaks national park west of brisbane. my camera didnt really do the colours any justice it was alot brighter purply blue. and thank you for the id on the frog i was hoping for an amoured mist frog but had my suspicions it was a waterfall frog happy with the find though.



CamdeJong said:


> Some great finds Amber! The unknown is definitely a Small-eyed, characterised by the head shape, greyish colour and there's no colour visible on the flanks. Smaller tree snake is a Northern. I've recently moved to NQ for study and can't wait to get up to the Tablelands and Cairns and see some wild Jungles and Scrubbies. Great photos!


 
im quite happy about it being a small eyed ive seen plenty of RBBS in the wild but never a small eyed. the tablelands are great! ive got a few spots that ive never failed to see snakes.



ShaneWright said:


> sorry picture doesnt work for me.


 
sorry im still new to using a forum i uploaded it on image shack and it doesnt seem to be working will suss it out and re post, thanks.

here's a closer view of the larger tree snake..


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## gus11 (May 23, 2011)

your gecko would be oedura robusta being from down there


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## NotoriouS (May 23, 2011)

great pics and welcome to APS Amber!


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## elogov (May 23, 2011)

Woo Cairns.


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## Torah (May 23, 2011)

its amazing seeing them in the wild !  love it !


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## GeckPhotographer (May 23, 2011)

First gecko is 100% O.robusta

The frog is Litoria nannotis as said. Do you know what species of bar frog it was it is extremely easy to tell apart based on groinal colouring and bar patterns?
Skink number two is not a water skink as someone else said but a member of the Egernia genus. Skink 3 and 4 are E.freri as someone said. 

The scrubbie is a scrubbie, the small eyed is a small eyed.


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## snakeluvver (May 23, 2011)

holy crap those are some amazing finds! Love the scrubbie and jungle, thats a jungle that even a top breeder would want in their collection.


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## thepythia (May 23, 2011)

GeckPhotographer said:


> First gecko is 100% O.robusta
> 
> The frog is Litoria nannotis as said. Do you know what species of bar frog it was it is extremely easy to tell apart based on groinal colouring and bar patterns?
> Skink number two is not a water skink as someone else said but a member of the Egernia genus. Skink 3 and 4 are E.freri as someone said.
> ...


 
thank you for the correction.. the barred frog was located in jimna state forest i saw quite a few of them. i think a giant barred frog? i was in another area were there were a few fleays barred frogs and they were different (size+markings) to my eye anyway im still working on identifying species (obviously) . and the northern barred frogs up here are different again.

thanks to everyone else for the comments, greatly appreciated


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## GeckPhotographer (May 23, 2011)

Yep my dad has just gotten home and seconded the Giant Barred frog. (Mixophyes iteratus). I was going off that it was further North as I have only seen one or two individuals of each Northern species and am not as comfident in id for them. All the barred frogs are quite distinct once you have seen a few or when you see them side by side you seem to be getting the hang of it already.


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## kawasakirider (May 31, 2011)

That jungle is STUNNING! I love it!! I'd love to see more jungles if you find any in the future.

I've seen HUGE skinks, too  One at a golf course in sydney that was exactly like the one you posted (except multicoloured) and it was about a foot long.


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## thepythia (Jun 7, 2011)

yeah it was stunning! 
i got my drive off my old laptop back yesterday and came across this picture. its a bad photo but was taken a couple of years ago when i first got to australia.. didn't know anything about snakes but this was the first one i saw in the wild, pretty sure it was a jungle now and he was green and black. is this common? i dont really know much about their colouring and patterns etc, still learning everything.



was found on the atherton tablelands pretty close to atherton itself.


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## jedi_339 (Jun 10, 2011)

looking at the barred frog it's definitely a giant barred frog. The easiest distinction between most of the barred frogs, is the colour of the iris, the iteratus has a golden colour in the upper half of the eye as your picture beautifully shows.

Good photos, nice work


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## pythrulz (Jun 10, 2011)

Some grat photos and good finds there like the wild monitors and jungle


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