Some more photos from up North, this time the North Kimberley where I've been for the last 4 and a bit weeks.
Something that caused a bit of debate was the Pygmy King Brown
Pseudechis weigeli. We've found 6 specimens so far and appear to be far more common up here than the regular mulga (P. australis). We did get a massive regular mulga in a funnel trap, it was 157cms SVL, making it about 170cm long. A big powerful snake- scary. I don't have photos up of that animal, but I do have some pics of a mulga that was run over by someone on the station. Freshly killed, it doesn't look too dead in the photos.
P. weigeli Photo Gallery by Henry Cook at pbase.com
P. australis Photo Gallery by Henry Cook at pbase.com
We've been getting a few really cool frogs because of the record rainfall up here. i've never seen the Kimberley Spadefoot
Notaden weigeli before and it didn't disappoint. Cracking animal, probably as cool as
N. bennetti. Their cute little downturned mouths are perfect for eating ants, which is exactly how I captured a photo of one with it's tongue out- it took about 25minutes of lying on the sandstone, waiting for it to gulp down an ant.
Notaden sp. Photo Gallery by Henry Cook at pbase.com
We've been getting quite a few
Nephrurus sheai about the rock outcrops and amongst the woodlands. They are a really neat species and the juveniles are particularly cute. I haven't managed to provoke a hissing and lunging defence response from them yet, but I don't want to harass them too much. It's remarkable how adept the juveniles are at crawling up and along vertical rock faces. I suspect
amyae probably do the same thing.
N. shaei Photo Gallery by Henry Cook at pbase.com
We have a brand new species up here.
Ctenotus halysis was collected at one of our sites and described as a new species (in the last year or two) by Paul Horner. They were originally lumped in with
Ctenotus allacer, an arid adapted species from around Alice Springs.
C. halysis Photo Gallery by Henry Cook at pbase.com
I have a heap more photos to add to my site, which I'll do soon. I've got some more colubrids and skinks and geckos and bird and and and etc etc etc.