A few herps from my Darwin and Kakadu trip

[pythonmum]

I just got back from a fantastic week in the NT. It was so nice to be WARM again! Of course, the first herp I saw was a big, fat cane toad in the hotel garden, but after that things improved. I didn't go spotlighting or anything, so I only saw a couple of skinks and the ever-popular crocodiles. Here they are, with skinks first.

Cryptoblepharus metallicus just outside Darwin

Cryptoblepharus ruber at Ubirr Rock - a range extension for the species. It had the most gorgeous bright gold head and was moving very quickly....

Cruising the billabong on the Mary River to see crocs - plenty to see. Crocodylus porosus

Crocodylus johnsoni

At a conference breakfast at Crocosaurus Cove, they showed us this little freshwater croc which may be a new species or subspecies of johnsoni. It lives on the top of escarpments, eats mainly insects and vocalises frequently. The specimen shown in this photo is an adult! They breed at and maintain this small size over many generations in captivity, so there is a fair argument for a separate species, but many different opinions among the croc folks I spoke with.

This is my favourite photo from Crocodylus Park. I love the 'evil grin' look.

I got to feed one of the salties at Crocodylus park - using a very long pole with a chicken neck attached to the string at the end. I also held the baby crocs. It is amazing how soft they are.

I had the pleasure of hearing Grahame Webb speak twice - once on wildlife conservation in general, with crocodiles as a case study; once on crocodile husbandry and farming. It was really fascinating hearing his insights into the biology and reproduction of saltwater crocs, as well as the mindset of people and governments!

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Size is no reason for a separate species, and as far as I have heard DNA analysis shows the escarpment pygmy crocs to be the same species. Nice shots looks like you had a good time. Gotta say all the Cryptos I saw up there were grey....
Ubirr Rock would be a rather large range extension for ruber, I mean not huge. But can you back up that it really is ruber?

 

[pythonmum]

I was discussing it with the herpetologist at Crocosaurus cove and we were consulting the latest edition of Swan. The animal really did look like ruber and nothing else. It was clearly different from metallicus, but I'm no skink expert. The only problem we had with calling it ruber was the published range.

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Have you got a bigger picture you could put up I can only just see there is a skink in the one that is up. Not that I am a skink expert myself but I'd love to take a look? Cryptoblepharus is a pretty variable genus. What was there to say it was not cygnatus?

 

[Gusbus]

wicked pics, love the crocs

 

[eipper]

You need to KEY out Cryptoblepharus in the hand unless you have pics that show the following: plantar scale condition, midbody count, supercillary counts as a starter.

There are already a number of range extensions from Paul Horners original paper.

Cheers,
Scott

 

[pythonmum]

Unfortunately, I can't get any better resolution with the limits of my clunky computer and the forum downloads. My computer nearly had a heart attack putting those photos into Photobucket! I had better resolution on my iPad during the ID session. The animal in question had a lighter grey background colour with darker grey and whitish speckles which were not arranged in stripes, but more of a general speckled appearance. The head was a lovely gold colour. My photo was taken on a Sony Cybershot, so not a great camera for photographing quick-moving skinks. Lucky I got anything! Perhaps it was cygnatus - I don't know the distinguishing features and don't have a copy of the latest Swan for reference at home

 

[LizardLady]

Hey Pythonmum! Welcome home! (hope you brought some of that warmer weather back with you?!)

Awesome photos, and I agree with GP - looks like you had a fantastic time (and who wouldn't up there?!). I also agree with you on that last shot with the "evil grin"! Hehehe, imagine finding that standing in the middle of your path! Phew!

Anyway, good to have you back!

All the best,
Carolyn

 

[eipper]

the latest Wilson and Swan is not that great for spliting the Cryptos.....the key in the paper is good though

 

[pythonmum]

Thanks LizardLady. Wish I could have brought back the warm weather. The paper was talking about the record low of 21 as I left Darwin. My clothes were still warm when I unpacked, but not for long!

The crocs sure were impressive, but I'm glad I don't have to live with them all of the time. There are so many beautiful places where you just can't safely go because it's too dangerous. Grahame Webb had some interesting insights about what makes it worthwhile for people to live with such big, dangerous predators. Paying them to harvest the wild eggs for farming goes a long way toward making landowners allow the big ones to keep living on their land.

We had an interesting debate over dinner about whether people could ever conserve a species if there was no profit in it. The vegetarians wanted to think that this was the only way to go and were distressed by crocodile farming, but the case of saltwater crocodiles (and several other game species) shows that profit certainly helps with conservation.

the latest Wilson and Swan is not that great for spliting the Cryptos.....the key in the paper is good though

I never could have caught the little devil, so it shall have to be Cryptoblepharus spp.

 

[Boidae]

hahahaha the look on the last crocs face is priceless

 

[abnrmal91]

Awesome photos...looks like a really good holiday. Thanks for sharing.