# 2 weeks in Central Australia.



## GeckPhotographer (Apr 19, 2014)

So just after Christmas I spent several weeks in the arid inland around Alice Springs and Yulara. I managed to find a few herps to take pictures of and thought I'd post them up here. Unfortunately flickr has recently changed how images are copied into forum threads (Making it much harder) and for that reason I'll only be linking 1-2 pics for each species though more are likely to be present on flickr. 

The trip started off in Adelaide, heading north with my cousins towards Alice springs we stopped once for the night in northern SA and I managed to track down some very pretty geckos, one of my new personal favourites. These were fairly abundant and despite not seeing any other species I managed to locate about 20 of these. 


Diplodactylus galeatus by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr


Diplodactylus galeatus by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

We made quick progress to Alice without other stops. While I had 10 nights in Alice Springs I had limited opportunity to actually go herping. Mainly my efforts consisted of walking off into the bush alone at night looking for geckos, which I managed to track down a few of. 

Marbled Velvet Geckos are impressive and rather common all over the area. 


Oedura marmorata by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr


Oedura marmorata by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Bynoe's Geckos were common in many places. 


Heteronotia binoei by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Higher on the ridges however Pale-headed Geckos, newly described at the time took over in abundance. 


Heteronotia fasciolatus by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Another ridge line inhabitant was this Clawless Gecko, which were either not very abundant, hard to find or both as it was the only individual I tracked down. 


Crenadactylus ocellatus by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

The gecko I most wanted to see however proved the hardest to track down, though I eventually found 2 individuals nearby to each other along a ridge. These Centralian Knob-tails are truly impressive and voracious geckos. 


Nephrurus amyae by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr
A spikier one. 


Nephrurus amyae by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr


Nephrurus amyae by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

While walking around at night got me so far I had some snake and frog targets that it just wasn't helping with. Fortunately I met up with some super super kind local herpers who with little more explanation than "I like reptiles" showed me around a few places. 
One particular night with this lovely bunch led to the exciting find of one of Alice's most spectacular reptiles. This medium sized Central Carpet was absolutely gorgeous, and the pics don't do it justice. 


Morelia spilota by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr


Morelia spilota by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Another of my targets were commonly found on the same night. 
Gillen's Tree Frogs.


Litoria gilleni by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

My time in Alice eventually ran out. I moved on a little sad to leave such an awesome place for herping adventures but keen to make my next destination, that being Uluru. I spent only 4 nights at the iconic rock but this was plenty enough to see some cool reptiles of the area. 

Earless Dragons are very cool and were common in rocky areas. 


Tympanocryptis centralis by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Alongside these were Massive Gibber Ctenotus. 


Ctenotus septenarius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

The sandier areas had their own array of cool critters such as Pygmy Desert Monitors. 


Varanus eremius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr


Varanus eremius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

These fast sand-swimming Blue-tailed Ctenotus. 


Ctenotus calurus by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

And true sandswimmers, the Lerista skinks of which 3 species occured sometimes all together. 


Lerista bipes by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Lerista desertorum by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Night time was also productive for a range of animals including my favourite group geckos. 

The soft sandy dunes were great habitat for these Pale-knob Tails, an endearing and beautiful species. 


Nephrurus laevissimus by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Slightly more compact sandy areas seemed better for another Nephrurus, the Smooth Knob-tailed Gecko. 


Nephrurus levis by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Northern Spiny-tailed Geckos were abundant nearly everywhere. 


Strophurus ciliaris by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr


Northern Spiny-tailed Gecko tail by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Another abundant though legless gecko, was the Western Hooded Scaly Foot, with 20 being seen in just one night. 


Pygopus nigriceps by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Less abundant but still present were snakes, with a variety being seen. These shovel-nosed snakes were cool and pretty variable in pattern. 


Brachyurophis semifasciatus_001 by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

A single Monk Snake was also found and though it was highly attractive my pictures of it all do it terrible justice. 


Parasuta monachus by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

On only the second night I got extremely lucky seeing one of the rarer and prettiest inhabitants of the sandy wonderland. This Woma was one of the highlights of the trip despite it not being a gecko....



Aspidites ramsayi by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr


Aspidites ramsayi by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Unfortunately I flew out of the arid zone here only a day before rain arrived bringing the frog life out. However I had other places to be, flying from here to the Kimberley. A trip which hopefully I'll put up soon (probably depending on how much Flickr annoys me in the meantime). 

Hope you enjoy Cheers.


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## NickGeee (Apr 19, 2014)

Amazing.


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## andynic07 (Apr 19, 2014)

Great photos and amazing animals, congratulations on the woma and amyae. How big were the amyae?


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## GeckoJosh (Apr 19, 2014)

Great thread Steve, the pics are amazing


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## Focus (Apr 19, 2014)

Beautiful shots. That Bredli is something else!


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## critterguy (Apr 20, 2014)

Lucky bugger, I don't run into interesting herps on my invert hunts very often, maybe the odd sand goanna, plain looking skinks and green tree frogs/bell tree frog/ornate burying frogs.


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## shamat (Apr 20, 2014)

Inspirational images there. 
Can't wait to get the opportunity to do a trip like that myself.


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## GeckPhotographer (Apr 21, 2014)

Hey thanks so much all. 



andynic07 said:


> Great photos and amazing animals, congratulations on the woma and amyae. How big were the amyae?



Adult males, roughly 11cm long, probably coulda been chunkier by amyae standard but a big gecko nonetheless.


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## Rocket (Apr 21, 2014)

Good series of shots of some remarkable animals.

I find it to be ridiculous that a thread about a bearded dragon or python in a box gets more replies though.


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## Mr_48Volts (Apr 21, 2014)

Very nice pics


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## GeckPhotographer (Apr 21, 2014)

Rocket said:


> Good series of shots of some remarkable animals.
> 
> I find it to be ridiculous that a thread about a bearded dragon or python in a box gets more replies though.



Ahahah so is the way of the world. Maybe I should put these guys in boxes before I take pics?


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## beautifulpythons (Apr 23, 2014)

Beautiful shots.. Wish I managed to find as many species as that when I was there! 

Next time eh..


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## moloch05 (Apr 25, 2014)

Wonderful photos, Stephen. I have not yet seen a Diplodactylus galeatus so was glad to hear that they were common. That was a good shot of the Clawless ... they are so tiny and hard to see.

The snakes were great but wow, a Woma! Great find and photos.

Regards,
David


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