TH's field herping in the Western Cape

[TH]

My last thread seems to have gotten a little long, so I thought I would rather start a new one…

Anyway, the last couple of months have been quite good around the Western Cape in terms of finding good stuff out in the field – here are a few of my finds since the beginning of September 2012. It’s been awesome to finally have some decent activity again and I hope it continues for a good while still… I even managed to find a couple of species that I had never seen before, so I was well chuffed…

Ocellated Thick-toed Gecko - Pachydactylus geitje


Large-scaled Girdled Lizard - Cordylus macropholis


Cuvier’s Blind Legless Skink - Typhlosaurus caecus


Silvery Dwarf Burrowing Skink - Scelotes bipes


Gronovi’s Dwarf Burrowing Skink - Scelotes gronovii


Bloubergstrand Dwarf Burrowing Skink - Scelotes montispectus


Common Slug-eater - Duberria lutrix


Cape Worm Snake (aka Black Thread Snake) - Leptotyphlops nigricans


Herald Snake - Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia


Spotted Skaapsteker - Psammophylax rhombeatus


Karoo Sand Snake - Psammophis notostictus


Spotted Harlequin Snake - Homoroselaps lacteus


Puffadder - Bitis arietans


Boomslang - Dispholidus typus


Raucous Toad - Amietophrynus rangeri


Striped Stream Frog - Strongylopus fasciatus


Rattling Frog - Semnodactylus wealii


Eastern Ghost Frog - Heleophryne orientalis


Strawberry Rain Frog - Breviceps acutirostris


Sand Rain Frog - Breviceps rosei


Namaqua Rain Frog - Breviceps namaquensis

[Lillypod]

I love the rain frogs! They have very cute faces.

[Bushviper]

Have you been excavating or something? How did you find all the fossorial reptiles and amphibians?

[westley]

Some very nice find TH, and even better photographs!

Have you ever observed C. macropholis for a period of time? I'm curious as to how they behave. Other Cordylids bask on rocks, but of course this species shouldn't.

Do they even bask at all?

[TH]

Thanks for the comments!

Bushviper, all of these animals were found through actively searching various areas, mostly looking under rocks, logs, junk lying out in the veld or scratching around in molehills or at the base of vegetation.

Westley, I very seldom see C. macropholis out in the open, but when I do, it is generally darting between patches of restios. I have never seen them out in the open basking. Most of the time, I just find them under things in the veld.

[Fooble]

Stunning!

That fasciatus pic is beautiful!

Always enjoy your posts Trevor keep them coming!

[Robyn@TRR]

Geez, I guess rain frogs don't like having their pictures taken...

[Kev]

Great post as usual... I’m curious to know how common the Homoroselaps are?

[TH]

Thanks Kev! They are not too uncommon, but I don't ever find them in large numbers anywhere in the Western Cape...