Christmas 2014-2015 trip

[Gabriel Martinez]

Dear all,

Finally I was in South Africa some days ago. It was a great experience and we drove a lot of kms to visit Karoo/Namaqualand (1), Kalahari (2) and tropical areas (3). In the eastern parts of Northern Cape the weather was very cold (12-13º at night) and we only find 1 gecko in roads. In the kalahari the weather was hot and in the rest of the country not bad. But it was strange to find one night more than 5 snakes, and the next night, in the exactly same road and with similar conditions, 0 snakes.

Special thanks to Dean, Westley and Nick of the forum. I tried to talk with Marius Burger, Johann Marais and Tony Phelps but they never give me any answer (...), so it was great to have a bit of help from the people here (not records, just general info about the country). When anybody visit Spain or Morocco and wrote me an email and I check that he is a good herper and not a smuggler (web, photos, general info) I usually try to help people. I don´t really understand why some people don´t help me. It´s like if some people only help you if they get money of you

I find very difficult to make a identification of all species so if any of you can help me, I would really apreciate it (here in the forum or by private message).
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrimtne ... 787907589/

In Kzulu Natal we found a big snake (more than 1,5m) DOR. The head was very flat and destroyed so the ID is difficult. Maybe Dendroaspis polylepis or any Psammophis?

DOR animals 4.jpg

Cheers

Gabri

[Gabriel Martinez]

We found also some specimens dead on road. We tried to rescue animals of the road but most animals were dead or "hit" by a car (and dead after some minutes). A real pity to have road in very good habitats. This was the most sad thing in the trip...

DOR animals 1.jpg

1. Big melanistic Pseudaspis cana, 2. Male Boomslang, 3. Varanus albigularis, 4. Adult file snake

DOR animals 2.jpg

The worse herpetologic night (maybe in my life): 1. Naja annulifera, 2. Dasypeltis scabra, 3. Vine snake, 4. ???, 5-6. Puff adders, 7. Herald snake, 8. Female boomslang

DOR animals 3.jpg

The last night in SA. 2 alive puff adders and 5 dead snakes: 1-3. Boaedon capensis, 4. Big puff adder and 5. Psammophis brevisrostris (probably killed in evening)

[SteveZi]

beautiful photos

[Westley Price]

Awesome finds Gabriel, but a pity about all the DOR. Did you keep the DOR or simply discard them?

I know this sounds very strange, but I have gotten to the point where finding a DOR of a rare species is almost as exciting as finding a live one, haha.

I think your large DOR is D. polylepis.

I had a look through your Flick album and seem you only posted all the sad find and left all the awesome finds for us to browse

Please post all the animals for which you require ID or are doubtful of ID and we will be able to help you out.

[Gabriel Martinez]

Thanks Steve and Westley.

Yes, black mamba was the species that we thought. It could have been amazing to see black mamba crossing the road. Maybe next time!

Sometimes in Morocco I am also "happy" when I found a strange species DOR in a new locality. But I always prefer to find animals alive.

I attach some photos of skinks:

Skink Springbok.jpg

Skink Pofadder.jpg

9. Skink in situ UPINGTON.jpg

[Gabriel Martinez]

Skink Hluhluwe.jpg

Skink Drakensberg.jpg

Skink Steinkopf.jpg

[Westley Price]

Awesome photos.

The skinks are in order of pictures:
- Trachylepis variegata
- T. spilogaster (?)
- T. variegata
- T. varia
- T. punctatissima
- T. capensis

I really hope you had a good time here and come back in the future.

[Gabriel Martinez]

Thank you very much Westley!!!

[Bushviper]

When you see this many dead snakes in one night you wonder how many get killed each year. These that you found are not all of them from that stretch of road either. Some were taken by scavengers and others were killed after you passed.

Very sad.

[Natcon NC]

Gabriel it is sad about the DOR's but here is a link where your DOR data can be of use http://www.ewt.org.za/WTP/wtp.html.

Maybe more herpers can join this so that they can get sufficient data and to high light this issue. There is even a smart phone app which can be used to report the DOR's

[Gabriel Martinez]

Yes bushviper. We found dozens of mangoose in the roads (many species probably), jackal, hyena, ... so probably we didn´t find all snakes that were killed. A local herper told me that one night he found 21 Bitis arietans in road (19 DOR), that is very sad, but by other way it shows that in KZN you have (still) high densities of snakes.

Natcon, this link looks amazing, I´m cheking it well, maybe we should make something like that for Morocco in www.moroccoherps.com. They are some roads that are "black areas" for fauna, specially reptiles and it could be interesting to study alternatives...

Cheers and thanks to both for your comments

[Ruan Stander]

Jeez that's horrific.