Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Accounts and photos of non-captive reptiles in their natural habitat outside of South Africa. Try to record with your account details such as time of day/night, temperature, weather conditions, lunar cycle, sex, rough age of reptile, and so on.

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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby mania » Wed Feb 26, 2014 7:27 pm

Amazing finds, and great photography :)
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Kennyakagera » Sat Mar 08, 2014 8:41 pm

Thanks Mania, much appreciated.
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Kennyakagera » Sat Aug 30, 2014 12:46 pm

Hi guys,

Havent post anything here for a long time now, and decide to revive this post a little. The forum lost a bit of its activity lately I believe and I ll try to do my part, as little as it is.
Unfortunately the replies were becoming less and less on my post and I lost interest, spending a fair amount of time uploading, organising and posting my pictures its a bit disappointing when no comment, advice, or any replies come out of it. I'll try to hold on because this forum has helped me a lot in the past, and I believe there is nothing similar to that anywhere on the web. I found it very sad that it quickly turned into a ball python morph and leopard gecko hobbyist forum and most of the nice field trip post (which should be the main ones) have disappeared. The forum helped me a lot previously and I hope my contribution, as little as it can be, can help a bit in return.

Ill stop mumbling now and give you some pictures, this is a first section of a trip I did in Busaga Forest, central western Rwanda.

It is a tiny piece of rain forest left on a koppie, at around 2200 meter above sea level and the diversity found was mind blowing for such a tiny area.

Here are a few picture, more pictures will come soon.

Crotaphopeltis hotemboeia, Herald snake.
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Crotaphopeltis hotemboeia, Herald snake, neonate.
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Trioceros johnstonii, Rwuenzori three horned chameleon.
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Very easy to spot these little guys at night.
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Trioceros jonstoni, Rwuenzori three horned chameleon, Neonate. Just to give you an idea of how small these baby are.
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Trioceros ellioti, Montane side stripped chameloeon.
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Leptosiaphos graueri, Rwanda Five-toed skink
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Atheris nitschei, Great lakes Bush Viper.
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Sincere apology for the free handling picture, just to give you an idea of the size and you can clearly see on that picture she had just eaten a large meal, most likely an Amieta sp commonly found in the river. Apologise again for the free handling, it was unsafe and not very clever but I just did not want her to regurgitate her meal and was so happy to find it in that tiny relic forest that I couldn't keep my excitement. She was the primary goal for the trip and as you can see on the fainted smile on my face I was rather happy about it.
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Lygodactylus gutturalis, Chevron throated dwarf guecko.
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There are more pictures coming up soon from the savanna side of Rwanda.

Hope you enjoyed

Stay away from the sharp end.

Kenny.
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Nick Evans » Sat Aug 30, 2014 3:36 pm

This beats a Boa, Leopard Gecko or Bearded Dragon post any day!

I would have done the same thing as you with that A.nitschei, really amazing find! You should frame that pic!

The chameleons are also really cool.

Thanks for posting!
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Ruan Stander » Sat Aug 30, 2014 5:50 pm

Stunning photos Kenny, you are very privileged to be able to interact with those species.

The nitschei is breathtaking. If I found one I'm sure I would have kissed it ;)
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Westley Price » Sat Aug 30, 2014 7:06 pm

Awesome find Kenny, especially the chameleons are super cool, what beauties!

I think I need to come and visit you up north, haha.

Thanx for taking the time to post.
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Kennyakagera » Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:44 am

Thanks all for the positive messages. I will try to get some time later on today and post more picture from July.
Westley, it surely is a place to visit in your life, their is nothing like Rwanda in Africa and is a must destination (I guess everyone would say that from their country).
If you do come one day, my door is always open to fellow herpers.
Cheers for now,
Kenny.
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby jka » Sun Aug 31, 2014 12:24 pm

Excellent post. :smt023
Those Chameleons are something else, they are just amazing!
At what age does the Chameleons horns start showing?
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Fooble » Sun Aug 31, 2014 2:44 pm

Quality post Kenny! I can emphasise with you on your frustrations as it's something i've touched on a long while ago.

Those Chameleons are stunning some classic photos.
Thanks for posting, we can all apreciate the time and effort that goes into the posts.

As for this...
Nick Evans wrote:I would have done the same thing as you with that A.nitschei


Need we remind you of the Vine Snake incident NICK!
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Kennyakagera » Sun Aug 31, 2014 8:50 pm

Thanks for the comment guys, really appreciate some feed back.
Rian for the age I can be 100% sure, but here is a shot of a young male that start developing horns found the same night.
Second one with my finger for size comparison with the female above.

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Image

Excuse the poor quality of these last picture, but don't like working with flash and the use of my torch does miracle sometimes but most of the time is a major fail.

Thanks Tyrone, I understand the frustration but lets take the hit for the cause and bring SAreptiles to what it use to be.

Sick of the bloody radioactive/inbred #$%^ reptiles in all kind, nowadays.

On that note cheers guys.

Ill post an update soon.

Kenny.
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Westley Price » Sun Aug 31, 2014 9:41 pm

Looking at your first Herald photo again, makes me wonder if there aren't perhaps a few new species to be describe in the genus.

I realize they are extremely variable (comparing the Cape ones to the Gauteng ones) but I recon there might be something different to the Central Africa ones.
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby reptile » Mon Sep 01, 2014 7:10 am

Here in Malawi, the heralds all have white lips, never have I or my firends seen one with redish lips, the closest ones have yellowish lips. I've also noticed a lip colour change in one of my captive species, when it was small it had a white upper lip, but now it has a lip that matches the colour of its head, interesting I think.
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Kennyakagera » Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:36 pm

Westley, their is someone at the university of Cape Town doing a PhD on the Crotaphopeltis hotemboeia group looking at DNA from different location all over Africa, I have collected DNA of every single C.hotemboeia in Rwanda/Burundi for her so hopefully it will shed some light on genetic difference among the different distributions, maybe the one in EA were geographically separated from the other population resulting in specialisation. Morphologically their is a definite difference to my opinion.
If you look at the Causus rhombeatus from Rwanda, they look nothing like Southern Africa species, although the scale count matches, I have attached a couple of pictures from them for reference.

Adult female, typical phase found in Rwanda, you can see the C.resimus behind, excuse the sh!t picture in an enclosure but lost all the pictures in its natural habitat of this female.
Image

Here is a male found in Rwanda. Both were found in Savanna.
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Typical Southern African phase, found in the Western Cape, George.
Image

Cheers for now

Kenny.
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Bushviper » Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:22 pm

If there is one night adder that I would like to keep it would be C. resimus. I saw these a few years ago and they just look so soft and velvety.
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Re: Rwanda-Burundi Reptile, amphibians, invertebrate etc...

Postby Kennyakagera » Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:47 pm

Arno its not only the look, the feeling of the scale is unreal, an exaggerated C.rhombeatus in therm of softness. It is very very difficult to resist handling these guys.

Here is a photo of a female found close by Kigali, where they are still relatively abundant although the area is highly populated.
Causis resimus female, Rwanda.
Image

Kenny.
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