A herping we will go...

[slim6y]

What have you seen so far this season?

I don't know if I am really lucky, but I managed to see this monitor out and about at the back of my house. I took some photos, but I am not sure if it's a black tailed monitor or a tree monitor. In fact since my last identification f**** I think I will leave it to you experts...

I've had a good season herping so far. Seen a few monitors out and about.

This one I stumbled upon while taking my daughter for a bike ride. I didn't have my camera on me, so I went back home and thought... Damn, I really wished I had my camera and had taken a picture. So I chanced it and went back. Low and behold, still there!!! Same tree, almost same place in fact! When I first saw it it was on the ground, but shot up the tree which is in fact what alerted me to it in the first place. If it had just stayed on the ground then I would never have seen it!

Sorry about the quality, that's the problem with wild livies, you never know when you'll meet them.

So maybe you can tell me a bit about the biology of this monitor (food, size etc...)

I might go herping again tonight... Might get some nice big scrubbies in the flora!

 

[cris]

Thats a nice lace monitor
They can get very big(over 2m) and eat anything meaty like birds, eggs, reptiles, mamals etc.

 

[slim6y]

wow!! It was making that tree look like a footpath... so easy for it to negotiate passed the 180' mark.... Was almost hanging upside down at one point! Thanks for the ID tho! I'm getting better at hunting these creatures out and knowing when to look up!

 

[Australis]

Ive seen a few monitors over the last two weeks, at first i only found juvies, and thought they looks like Sand Goannas...lol
A week later i found a few large Adults, which made it pretty clear i had been seeing Lacies the whole time.. i didnt know they had such a different pattern up here in QLD compared to NSW.

 

[Gordon]

Nice pics SLM

 

[slim6y]

Wow.... That's a fatty mat!!! I never seen a NSW one... I have been soley based in Qld all my Aussie time... I went to Sydney but only saw the monitors at Taronga Zoo. They're so cute! Are you sure they're not tree monitors? How can you tell the diff? I have a book here that doesn't explain a thing, but still looks cool hehe...

Where bouts are you Mat?

Im in Cairns... hoping to see loads more this spring/summer... and avoid being bitten!

 

[Australis]

Slim,


Im in Central Queensland, all the Lacies ive seen in NSw have been more striped in pattern.

The Markings on the throat and tail, is what finally led me to believe these are Lacies.

Matt

 

[cris]

Try this link, the only problem is it has exotics too.
http://mampam.50megs.com/monitors/monitors2.html

 

[Magpie]

Slim, I've seen a lot of monitors this season, only lacies though. They seem to be making a bit of a come back up here, either the toads are really on the decline or they've learnt not to eat them. If you wanna see a nice tame one, the first BBQs at Crystal Cascades.

 

[slim6y]

I'm thinking of heading up to the cascades tomorrow actually. It's nice to know there's a few around. It saddens me to think they're on the decline because of an introduced pest. But evolution stands the test - it's only if the animal has the time to adapt with the numbers. Eventually one will have to give. If the toads weren't so easy to catch then there wouldn't be so damn many deaths of our reptile and bird life! I understand that the freshwater snake (tropidonophis mairii) can survive small cane toads, but dies when eating adults. And some birds can survive the toad by turning them over and eating their gut cavity only!!! Shame monitors and the like haven't sussed that out yet!

 

[Australis]

Still plenty of cane toads around here still, and forever i imagine

 

[slim6y]

I'd like to add...

I have added to my list of herps I have seen so far this season...

Ok.. here goes...

Adding the three monitors I have photographed for your convenience. Plus another that I saw at Wrights Lookout (Kuranda).

The photos here were taken at Lake Placid (love the name).

I can also add to that a green tree snake that I saw sliding off the Jum Rum walking track. They might be as common as muck, but I still don't see them to often. Also to add to that four crocodiles up the Daintree River (all females).

I'm loving this amount of lace mons I have seen. And what's more I'm not even looking for them!

The one up the tree (pictured) ambled slowly up the tree dropping bits of bark on my head before I even noticed it crawling up only cm's from my head of the tree I was leaning on....

To me this is the most exciting season ever! Only because I have never been in Aussie to see them before.. hehe... Please feel free to add the wild herps you've seen and or photographed... would love to see them!

Just hopefully we all leave them in the wild and only take photographs and don't feed them with the mice that are too small to feed our snakes hehe...

PS - second thing - what do people do with the mice they aren't going to feed their animals? do you put them in the tree to feed the kookaburrah's???

 

[MoreliaMatt]

awsome pics guys!

 

[Bench Warmer]

Hey nice lacie pics... im up on the sunshine coast QLD,and as far as herps go here... I see green tree snakes very reguarly,lacies are common in certain places.. last one i saw was at a golf course a few days back,and beside that i saw an eastern brown a little over a metre at the big pineapple..it disapeared into undergrowth straight away but was fat as,the green tree snakes have become so easy to catch,take some great pics and let them go.. how it should be

cheers matt

 

[kwaka_80]

yeah on the sunshine coast i have seen 2 keelbacks, 3 green tree snakes a blue tounge and a pink tounge... i have also seen a little grey/light brown snake unsure of what it was but it was under some rocks in heavy bushlands

 

[Bench Warmer]

hey,awesome..where did you see the keelbacks?? i need something besides gts lol,i wanna see more BIG carpets and brown tree's or keelbacks or red bellies,gts are awesome and all but they get old after a while lol.

 

[slim6y]

photos - go the photos hehe...