Past few weeks

[SteveNT]

Thylacines are common in Arnhem Land art sites. Death Adder Gorge (Kakadu) has some really speccy mega fauna galleries but it is closed these days.

You can arrange tours of Injaluk Hill through Injaluk Art Centre.

 

[Torah]

That's where you keep all of your dead stuff before you send it to the museum, science class, cut it up or stick in a jar of metho.

I think im missing something , can you explain that a little more please, plus y ??

 

[Snakeluvver2]

Dead stuff = freezer untill it's sent to the museum, science class, dissected or preserved.
Why? Why not? Finding odd stuff out of ranges, seeing what they are eating, what it died from, what can be learnt from animals dosent stop when they are dead.

 

[waruikazi]

That's interesting regarding the Glauerts, I've heard that Sam Sweet carried out an extensive study of the area (though not sure of the exact location) and found local Glauerti populations to inhabit trees rather than rocky escarpments?!

Fantastic art shots, again, thanks for sharing. Those stick men remind me of the "Bradshaw" figures from the Kimberley! Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a Thylacine portrait near Ubirr? That should date to at least 3000 years ago! Imagine how old the underlying art must be!!

And that should be the first hint that they aren't glauerts! I read most of what i know from Varanoid Lizards of the World, from what was said in there i thought they were going to be an undescribed species but i've heard from a few herpers that they are just a scalaris or scalaris type of monitor. There is only one Arnhem 'glauert' in museum collections which is apparently in pretty poor shape but at school we have two of what i identified as scalaris in glass jars collected by Brian Jukes in 1974.

Like steve said there are other art sites that show long extinct animals. There is a site in Kakadu that has pictures resembling Demon Ducks, which went extinct in the pleistocene. That's 40 000 years ago!

Thylacines are common in Arnhem Land art sites. Death Adder Gorge (Kakadu) has some really speccy mega fauna galleries but it is closed these days.

You can arrange tours of Injaluk Hill through Injaluk Art Centre.

Pretty sure the Injaluk centre tours don't organise permits. Pretty sure people outside of Arnehm need to organise a tour through a guide like the Arnhem Lander or Lords.

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

i cant wait till you are taking macro shots of the critters in your area Gordo,
you really are very lucky.

 

[waruikazi]

I think im missing something , can you explain that a little more please, plus y ??

At school we sometimes use the animals for disection for the kids to learn about them. The NT Museum also asked me once to collect R/K for them, i've never given them anything yet but they did ask once. It's kinda fun too, if i find something dead that has an obvious bump in its belly i'll cut it open to see what is in there, that's how i know that a Furina ornata can eat things as big as it. That's also how we know that NT taipans will prey on cane toads and an amateur cutting up a DOR eatern brown is how we found out pygmy blue tongues are not extinct.

Technically illegal though.

i cant wait till you are taking macro shots of the critters in your area Gordo,
you really are very lucky.

Tell you what though Baz for those 5 or 6 months when the rivers up and you can only drive about 2km either side of the community, you really don't feel that lucky! Lucky i'm not just out here for the animals, it would be an awful lot give up just for a few photos!

But Baz they were all taken with the macro function! Here's a zoomy pic...

 

[Wally]

Gordo,

Nice photos, especially the rock art. Certainly beats the graffiti I wake up to everyday. Does that collar tell you the overall distance your dog has traveled? Nice to see he's made a recovery from his ill timed leap out the window.

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Cutting up dead on road stuff is a long and well represented trait of field herpers the road over. It does not even need to be herps, or on a road. If its dead it's a chance to research, it is technically illegal though as said.

That point about the pygmy blue tongue, I was always under the impression from speaking to people close to the issue that it was not an amateur but someone quite versed in field herping that made that find, simply that they were not looking for the pygmy blue tongue when they cut open the snake. However I have never heard the name of the person mentioned as I say it was just an impression from how they talked about it.

Out of curiosity did the museum ask you to collect road kill for them and ask you to get a permit to do it on permit? Or were they doing the territory thing and using common sense?

 

[waruikazi]

Gordo,

Nice photos, especially the rock art. Certainly beats the graffiti I wake up to everyday. Does that collar tell you the overall distance your dog has traveled? Nice to see he's made a recovery from his ill timed leap out the window.

Not unless it keeps a constant signal on him, which it didn't. Yeah he's pretty well back to himslef now, maybe 95% of what he was. Still dumb enought to get himself into trouble with pigs, buffalo and other such creatures in the bush.

Cutting up dead on road stuff is a long and well represented trait of field herpers the road over. It does not even need to be herps, or on a road. If its dead it's a chance to research, it is technically illegal though as said.

That point about the pygmy blue tongue, I was always under the impression from speaking to people close to the issue that it was not an amateur but someone quite versed in field herping that made that find, simply that they were not looking for the pygmy blue tongue when they cut open the snake. However I have never heard the name of the person mentioned as I say it was just an impression from how they talked about it.

Out of curiosity did the museum ask you to collect road kill for them and ask you to get a permit to do it on permit? Or were they doing the territory thing and using common sense?

I'm just assuming it was an amateur cause that is what i heard, but there are lots of different levels of amateurs. I don't know who it actually was either. I like to think the museum wouldn't ask me to do anything illegal lol, lots of people donate interesting dead stuff to the museum and they never get into trouble, i'm sure it would be the same as me.

 

[Wally]

Thanks.

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Ok, apparently the re-discoverer of the pygmy blue tongue was Grahaeme Armstrong. Who is not totally an amateur, they have had plenty of experience with reptiles over their time but perhaps not quite an expert in the field either. I doubt the museum really minds people collecting dead stuff if it comes to them but I guess they would not really ask for you to behave illegally.

 

[Renenet]

Nice photos. That olive looks fat, healthy and peeved.

 

[$NaKe PiMp]

what an awesome place im going to have to get up that way,maybe even to live

 

[Boidae]

Awesome pics mate, that Olive's a beast!

 

[SnakeNBake]

Awesome pics, I would love to spend some time up there, what a place! Though Im still enjoying exploring Queensland.

 

[tropicbreeze]

That's interesting regarding the Glauerts, I've heard that Sam Sweet carried out an extensive study of the area (though not sure of the exact location) and found local Glauerti populations to inhabit trees rather than rocky escarpments?!

Sam Sweet did a lot of his work around the old Baroalba airstrip. It's mainly woodland habitat.

 

[eipper]

Pseudethedactylus are really easy up there Matt

Cheers,
scott

 

[waruikazi]

Gordo, do you see many A. praelongus in the area? Also have you ever managed to see Pseudothecodactylus lindneri?

I haven't seen any death adders out here, not even slide marks but i have found them closer to darwin recently.

No geckoes, i don't get into the escarpment at night unless i go into Kakadu, the locals don't like it and it's kinda spooky lol.

 

[waruikazi]

Thanks, I was surprised at how easy adders were to find in the escarpment area in the eastern side of Kakadu. It's a great part of the world...you are very lucky to live there!

They are one snake i've never found while looking for them, how did you manage to find them?

 

[tropicbreeze]

Thanks, I was surprised at how easy adders were to find in the escarpment area in the eastern side of Kakadu. It's a great part of the world...you are very lucky to live there!

Adders were always fairly common around the Cahills Crossing area of the East Alligator. Also around the South Alligator flood plains and the south western area of Kakadu. Cane toads may have thinned them out a bit now but I did get a photo of one in the south western area of the Park a few months ago.