Upper Katherine River, NT

[tropicbreeze]

Spent a night out on the upper Katherine River. There were lots of Freshie nests and Freshie tracks. But only saw one that took off before I got a good look and photo. No eyeshine out on the river. Only one nest had egg shell which looked like a successful hatching. One set of goanna tracks, looked like V. mertensi. And on a real positive note no Cane Toads, nor toadlets.

There were a lot of frogs, mostly Litoria nasuta, and a few L.inermis (edited to change from L. copelandi to L. inermis).



Only one lizard sighted, a Gecko I haven't been able to identify.

 

[jordanmulder]

ok well I'm likely to be wrong but I would think the gecko is Gehyra nana

 

[GeckPhotographer]

I am pretty sure it is not nana but it is definitely a Gehyra. Keep in mind nana are mostly rock dwelling and few species of Gehyra inhabit both rock and trees, and fewer inhabit both in the same place. Was once herping somewhere where we were finding about 60 G.lazelli per rock and 60 G.variegata per small shrub and absolutely no overlap that we could see at the time.

 

[tropicbreeze]

How about G. pamela? That matches the location. The patterns are pretty close. It was in the vegetation on the sandy river banks, a dead Acacia with loose bark. It ended up getting in under the bark out of view. The nearest rock outcrop was about 300 metres out from the river. Typical paperbark dominating along the river with open eucalypt woodland up to the rock outcrop.

 

[GeckPhotographer]

They are supposedly rock inhabiting too. How about G.australis they are both rock and tree, can appear similar in pattern to pamela (most G species are highly variable) and might fit the location.(They overlap but not everywhere.)

 

[tropicbreeze]

I'd hate to think it was G. australis, I'm over run with them at home, messy little sods that they are. But I didn't consider them an option because all the ones I've seen (believe you me 1000's) have generally been a very pale colour. Maybe up on dark tree bark they adopt that motley pattern. G. pamela would be much nicer :lol: . It's a pity but I didn't have time to check the rocks out, it was quite a big outcrop and probably home to a lot of creatures.
View attachment 213559

 

[Nephrurus]

I suspect your mystery Gehyra is probably pamela. Geckophotographer is right for most part, gehyras can be habitat specific but it really depends on where you are. Gehyra do funny things and what habitat they use depends on which other species are in the area. The generalist species are often displaced by specialists.
Here's a pamela on a tree. I love this photo!
Dactyloperus pamela photo - Alexander Dudley photos at pbase.com

 

[GeckPhotographer]

I can see why you love the photo, is great. Ok well if pamela can occur on trees then I'm happy to call it pamela.

 

[tropicbreeze]

Well, for what it's worth, I'm happy with calling it Pamela too