All Over Namibia

[MrG]

Very interesting. Thx for sharing.

[Kennyakagera]

Some amazing observations, and beautiful photography as always.
Interesting about the Rhinotyphlops Westley, I speak under correction but they are known to secrete a substance similar to that of soldier ants making them "unnoticed", hence the lack of reactions from the ants maybe.
Cheers,
Kenny.

[reptile]

Wow Westley!
Never actually looked at this post properly until now, and wow, its amazing. All the finds are magnificent, not to mention the photography!
Keep it up!

[Nick Evans]

That is really interesting behaviour Westley! I've never seen something like that before. Thanks for sharing!

[Westley Price]

Thanx guys.

Kenny, very cool about the secretion. I will read up a bit more.

[Westley Price]

So, this little fellow was due for the pickling jar (well vial at least), so I decided to give him an eternal legacy by placing his photos on the interwebs.

Enjoy

Pachydactylus cf. punctatus, Tsumeb

[Fooble]

Lekker thing that Wes!

[Westley Price]

So last night we had a few scattered rain showers (none at my place though!) and while in the field I noted herps were slightly more active than usual.

Found this gorgeous Psammobates oculiferus active mid-morning.



Cute little face.





Then managed to catch this little Agama aculeata on the road too. Strangely this one was so plump, I concluded it was gravid, which is highly unlikely at this size. It was not puffing up as a threat display and definitely swollen. Pretty little things.





Check the gorgeous pattern.



And here's the particularly plump, conspicuously lob-sided belly. I cant imagine she is already gravid at this size, but what else can it be?



Cheers

[Westley Price]

And found this Hadogenes taeniurus yesterday. Was just waiting for an ID confirmation from Jonathan Leeming.

[Bushviper]

The fact that the agama was lopsided makes me think she gorged herself on food items like flying ants. Eggs are usually balanced in the bellies that I have seen.

[reptile]

I just love that genus of scorpions. We have quite allot of them on our farm. (Near Rustenburg)

[Westley Price]

So not the natural photography I usually try to achieve, but that's a tad difficult with a DOR

Yesterday midday I was driving on a dirt road in the middle of the Otavi Mountains south of Tsumeb. I have spent quite a bit of time in the area so I kinda know which snakes to expect.

As I was travelling I passed a DOR and thought I would stop and quickly snip off the tail for pickling (I have been asked to collect as many samples as I can from all and any species) but when I turned around, I immediately saw that this was not one of the species I had known from the area. It was a Crotaphopeltis sp. Of course I don't know all the distributions off the top of my head so when I got home I quickly checked the books and the nearest record to the location was about 350km to the east in the Caprivi/NW Botswana.

I did some detailed scale counts and all clues point to C. hotamboeia, so not a new species, but a significant range extension.

In the pictures, note the strange shape of the head and eye. I can't put my finger on it, but it doesn't look like a typical Herald.









And then also found this big guy, about a 2m D. polylepis crossing the road. I was in the middle of nowhere so didnt want to risk messing with it, so I just chased it off the road from the safety of my bakkie, haha.





Thanx for looking.

[Mitton]

That first one is very interesting.
Nice Mamba, would also have stayed in the bakkie.

[Fooble]

That Herald looks interesting feeding on sand!

Nice nice as always, cool Mamba sighting!

[Chopper 1]

Big eye for head size! Like the grey snout