# Herping Oenpelli



## waruikazi (Dec 4, 2010)

Went out for a bit of a looky last night, all up about 45 mins driving and taking pictures. One of them got me very excited!

Young banded tree snake.












Hatchling water python











Lovely big BHP











Burtons (these always turn up in the exact same spot, makes for easy herping )











We also found a small freshie, pics are on my mates camera but.

And we found this... 










Here's some zoomage of the above picture.


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## Scleropages (Dec 4, 2010)

eeww snakes!.. last one looks ok.


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## Laghairt (Dec 4, 2010)

very cool thanks for posting


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## Scleropages (Dec 4, 2010)

oh... and a "Lizard".
Cool pics!


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## Bez84 (Dec 4, 2010)

Lol last one looks comfy, all snug in there thinking it seemed like a good idea at the time.


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## Kenno (Dec 4, 2010)

Great fnd mate! 

How big was it? any better shots? Tell us all more.

Cheers


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## ozziepythons (Dec 4, 2010)

Great herping pics Gordo, wonderful to see some wild reptiles. Hopefully you'll come across an Oenpelli python one evening


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## Brodie (Dec 4, 2010)

ozziepythons said:


> Great herping pics Gordo, wonderful to see some wild reptiles. Hopefully you'll come across an Oenpelli python one evening


 
Looks like he already has...

Nice one mate!!

Edit: Oh wait, you were being sarcastic, huh ozziepythons? My bad haha!


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## waruikazi (Dec 4, 2010)

Kenno said:


> Great fnd mate!
> 
> How big was it? any better shots? Tell us all more.
> 
> Cheers





ozziepythons said:


> Great herping pics Gordo, wonderful to see some wild reptiles. Hopefully you'll come across an Oenpelli python one evening





Brodie_W said:


> Looks like he already has...
> 
> Nice one mate!!
> 
> Edit: Oh wait, you were being sarcastic, huh ozziepythons? My bad haha!



I couldn't begin to count the hours i have spent on night drives, bush walking, rock climbing, hiking and getting out into the bush looking for that magical animal called the oenpelli python! I could not beleive my luck finding one only a year into my search and the fact that it was such a small animal (i guessed about 700mm) means that they have been breeding and there is atleast one healthy pair out there. I can not tell you how excited i was to find this! 

This little fella was stuck fast in that door, we left it over night to see if could get itself out. It was the longest night i have ever had, i couldn't sleep for the excitement of going back in the morning and trying to get a real photo. Morning came and it was still there. Unfortunately it couldn't get itselft out, so i took to tearing my way into the RHS to try and unstick the little one... i got him out! I'm so happy that there is atleast three people who are atleast a little bit excited to see these pics but no matter how bad you feel when you see this you will never EVER *EVER *know the disapointment i felt when this popped out!






Sorry! :lol: I was so sure it was a hatchling oenpelli! I'm gutted, absolutely devastated!


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## Scleropages (Dec 4, 2010)

hahahaah
it looked huge in the pic!
oh well. best of luck for next time!


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## Brodie (Dec 4, 2010)

Hahahaha... You got me good man! Like you, I've spent hundreds of hours looking for them. I only ever found a roadkill, that was a bad night (not far from Jabiru, we were actually looking for gwardars, was a huge surprise to see one there!) I snapped my snake hook when I smashed it on the ground.

At least you are in the right spot for them, hey? You have a way better chance of finding them than any of us. I bet you will find a few 

When I started looking for weigeli, it took me a year to find my first one. Then I started seeing them all the time, lol.

Have you gone looking for glauerti there? There is a pop. VERY near Nourlangie...

I am gutted for you mate! Bet you're going herping again tonight though, huh?

PS - Do you hate childreni now? Haha


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## Wally (Dec 4, 2010)

A real special find! You must be stoked.


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## waruikazi (Dec 4, 2010)

Brodie_W said:


> Hahahaha... You got me good man! Like you, I've spent hundreds of hours looking for them. I only ever found a roadkill, that was a bad night (not far from Jabiru, we were actually looking for gwardars, was a huge surprise to see one there!) I snapped my snake hook when I smashed it on the ground.
> 
> At least you are in the right spot for them, hey? You have a way better chance of finding them than any of us. I bet you will find a few
> 
> ...



Well to be fair to the childrens i have never seen one that looks like that ...ever! It even did the colour changing thing, the par tof it's body that was showing was dark and the parts in int RHS were pretty light.

Do you have pics of the one you found? Anymore info you can give us? Time of night, moon etc? PM me if you don't want to put it up on the forum.


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## JasonL (Dec 4, 2010)

mmmm, hard to resist biting that apple....


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## waruikazi (Dec 4, 2010)

JasonL said:


> mmmm, hard to resist biting that apple....



Hehehe.


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## ozziepythons (Dec 4, 2010)

Awww Gordo, his a nice little python anyway  Keep looking, they are a big snake confined to a restricted distribution, and your in their heartland.


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## waruikazi (Dec 4, 2010)

ozziepythons said:


> Awww Gordo, his a nice little python anyway  Keep looking, they are a big snake confined to a restricted distribution, and your in their heartland.



No actually i'm not, i'm in there namesake, not there heartland. They have never been recorded in Oenpelli itself.


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## python_boy (Dec 4, 2010)

good owrk. heyy does anyone no of anyherping spots to see snakes. around the brisban, gold coast area??


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## Brodie (Dec 4, 2010)

Hi Gordo,

Check PMs mate..

I was mistaken, it was actually Ubirr.. I always get the two mixed up! But yer it was definitely near the border store and cahills. Same goes for those glauerti.. Near Ubirr, not Nourlangie lol.

No pics. They were taken, but I don't have any pics pre late 06/early 07.


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## mungus (Dec 4, 2010)

are they still a source of food for the aboriginals ?


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## smacdonald (Dec 4, 2010)

Nice stuff, Gordo. This Children's pythons in the Arnhem Escarpment look quite different to the ones down in the lowlands. Lots of people mistake them for baby Oenpelli pythons (wishful thinking, understandably). Oenpelli pythons come out of the egg at about 80-90cm, whereas the Children's pythons don't tend to get that big even as adults (as far as I'm aware).

It's interesting to see that all of the 'Similar Threads' down below are from people asking about Oenpelli pythons in captivity. It's nice to know that there are still people keen to see these beasts in the wild. Keep searching! I have it on good authority that Oenpelli pythons are still around.


Stewart


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## waruikazi (Dec 4, 2010)

mungus said:


> are they still a source of food for the aboriginals ?



ROFL



reptilesDownUnder said:


> Nice stuff, Gordo. This Children's pythons in the Arnhem Escarpment look quite different to the ones down in the lowlands. Lots of people mistake them for baby Oenpelli pythons (wishful thinking, understandably). Oenpelli pythons come out of the egg at about 80-90cm, whereas the Children's pythons don't tend to get that big even as adults (as far as I'm aware).
> 
> It's interesting to see that all of the 'Similar Threads' down below are from people asking about Oenpelli pythons in captivity. It's nice to know that there are still people keen to see these beasts in the wild. Keep searching! I have it on good authority that Oenpelli pythons are still around.
> 
> ...



Thanks Stewart. 

I have been told about the stone country childrens being different to the normal childrens and heard conjecture from some herpers wether they are a distinct species or not. If i could find what i've done with the pictures of the two types we get here i would show how different they are. What got me was how slender it was, colour and how high small the scales were and that i couldn't see it's head. I knew it was on the small side for a hatchie Nawarran but with the small sample size of what has been studied, i still thought that the size it was (75cm) was within their range. 

Just makes me more eager to find one now!


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