# Herping around Townsville



## Stevo2 (Feb 3, 2013)

First successful evening drive tonight 

Dodgy photos though... Still trying to get the hang of the whole night herp photography thing.... 

Here's a few of the critters we saw -



















We also saw a number of owls, a wallaby, a dingo, a fox and some bats


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## richoman_3 (Feb 3, 2013)

loving the demansia in the first pic 
very cool find!


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## bohdi13 (Feb 3, 2013)

nice finds , have a mate in townsville who's into his reptiles


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## Stevo2 (Feb 3, 2013)

richoman_3 said:


> loving the demansia in the first pic
> very cool find!



Yeah.... To be honest - we're happy to be able to tell the difference between elapid, colubrid and python at this stage...  (lizards are more our thing...)

We'd be happy to hear a positive ID on pic #1 to confirm our knowledge....


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## Mitella (Feb 3, 2013)

that's some good herping 
and do you have anymore pics of the first one cause i went to see a taipan that was caught at the willows shopping center and it had the same light head, dark body, a visible neck (eastern browns have a fat neck), and did it happen to have something wrong with its head? just saying


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## CamdeJong (Feb 3, 2013)

Pic number 1 is a Coastal Taipan, Oxyuranus scutellatus. A great find, I'm in Townsville and yet to get my first Tai up there, but has the potential to be an extremely dangerous animal if handled or disturbed. Shy and keen to get away if possible, like any snake, but very reactive if it feels threatened.


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## Radar (Feb 3, 2013)

Nice finds


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## Mitella (Feb 3, 2013)

the one i release in townsville, we invited about 3 biologist and a couple of people to have a look and play and the taipan he leaped about1.7 mtrs in the air to tag 1 of the herpetologist and luckly missed 
the taipan was stunning tho
heres a pic


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## Stevo2 (Feb 3, 2013)

Thanks for the ID guys 

Here's a couple of other pics we got of it at the time. All the elapids we saw were still highly active (air temp was 28deg C) and none wanted to hang around for the photos - if anything, this one was the calmest of the bunch (and largest).







Here's a pic of one that I unfortunately didn't see until too late, dodged and he dodged in the same direction.........


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## CamdeJong (Feb 3, 2013)

Little Keelback in the last pic mate.


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## butters (Feb 3, 2013)

At first glance I would have said the first one was a coastal taipan but some greater whips can look very similar.

That keelback looks very skinny. I guess he won't be getting any fatter now.


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## CamdeJong (Feb 3, 2013)

butters said:


> At first glance I would have said the first one was a coastal taipan but some greater whips can look very similar.



It's a taipan mate.


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## Stevo2 (Feb 3, 2013)

CamdeJong said:


> Little Keelback in the last pic mate.



Thanks 

It was a real shame to have hit it  We stopped to see if it had made it clear and if it was ok.


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## Radar (Feb 3, 2013)

Having been herping around TSV for the last ten years I can say I've never seen a greater whip in the area that looked like that, but I've been wrong before. 

Occasionally things get under your tires mate, it's a pity but it will happen. I did a 450km trip one night to see nothing but a single box patterned gecko on the homeward stretch, which ran straight under my wheel. It's easy enough to say 'slow down', but it's hard to do 40kms an hour on the Bruce highway between herping roads and home....


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## butters (Feb 3, 2013)

CamdeJong said:


> It's a taipan mate.



I agree it's a taipan. I don't believe I said it wasn't. I was just saying I have seen whips that could be mistaken for them at first glance and from that photo it would be easy to make a wrong ID without better pictures.

I can't say I have seen a greater whip in the Townsville area that looked like that but I have only seen a couple there. In the gulf region though and nt I have seen a few that at first glance could be mistaken for taipans. In fact I often have people saying they have found a taipan and it ends up being a whip snake.

- - - Updated - - -



CamdeJong said:


> It's a taipan mate.



I agree it's a taipan. I don't believe I said it wasn't. I was just saying I have seen whips that could be mistaken for them at first glance and from that photo it would be easy to make a wrong ID without better pictures.

I can't say I have seen a greater whip in the Townsville area that looked like that but I have only seen a couple there. In the gulf region though and nt I have seen a few that at first glance could be mistaken for taipans. In fact I often have people saying they have found a taipan and it ends up being a whip snake.


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## Radar (Feb 3, 2013)

Yeah, I don't doubt it, everything ends up being a Taipan around here anyway, keelbacks and all


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## junglelover01 (Feb 3, 2013)

I've often wanted to go looking around Townsville for herpes but have been a clue of spots with no luck...anyone know the best spots?


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## junglelover01 (Feb 3, 2013)

*herps! Definitely not looking for herpes! Hahaha!


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## Radar (Feb 3, 2013)

Flinders street.


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## junglelover01 (Feb 3, 2013)

rednut said:


> Flinders street.



For herpes...for sure! But in all seriousness, I've been out to the common, up at paluma and Herveys range and come across zero decent reps!


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## Franco (Feb 3, 2013)

*Flinders east...


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## Chanzey (Feb 3, 2013)

Nice Work Stevo 

If that's the road I think it is, awesome work with the spotted and tai  drove it a lot but I'm still yet to see any.


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## Stevo2 (Feb 3, 2013)

Chanzey said:


> Nice Work Stevo
> 
> If that's the road I think it is, awesome work with the spotted and tai  drove it a lot but I'm still yet to see any.



 Couldn't have done it without your help, thanks heaps! We did 4 laps with a couple of off-shoots over a 4hour period......


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## Mitella (Feb 5, 2013)

not bad at all Stevo!


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## TMJJH94 (Aug 23, 2017)

Stevo2 said:


> First successful evening drive tonight
> 
> Dodgy photos though... Still trying to get the hang of the whole night herp photography thing....
> 
> ...



Where about in Townsville did you find all these guys?


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