Herpedex: All the Herps I Have Seen In The Wild: lizard

Showing posts with label lizard. Show all posts

Friday, 2 January 2015

Herping In IIT Chennai, India

Brook's Gecko

Date:
January 2nd 2015

Species Found:

Brook's House Gecko (Hemidactylus brookii)
Indian Bullfrog (Hoplobatrachus tigerinus)
Asian Toad (Bufo melanostictus)

Background:

My family took a trip to Chennai for 2 days and I decided to look for herps on the IIT campus in my free time. The campus is built in a reserve forest so it has lush greenery and prime wild animal habitat.

The Trip:

I just went around the campus one evening for an hour or two, looking along ponds and under rocks.

The first animal I found was a gecko on the side of a rock. On closer inspection I found that it was a Brook's Gecko.

Brook's Gecko

Brook's Gecko

Brook's Gecko

The next herp I found was an Indian Bullfrog. I saw a lot of them hopping by the side of a pond and it took a while to actually catch one because they were so fast and it was dark. The individual that I caught was a juvenile. Adults get around 5 times bigger.

Juvenile Indian Bullfrog

Juvenile Indian Bullfrog

Juvenile Indian Bullfrog

Juvenile Indian Bullfrog

Juvenile Indian Bullfrog

On the way back to the hotel I caught a little Asian Toad. I had seen plenty of these near my house in Bangalore but this one had a darker and duller coloration than the ones I had seen.

Juvenile Asian Toad

Juvenile Asian Toad

Juvenile Asian Toad

Juvenile Asian Toad

This was a very short trip but I did manage to get 2 new species for my Indian Herpedex.

Saturday, 20 September 2014

Fall Herping in the Kankakee Sands 2

Eastern Hognosed Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

Date:
September 20th 2014

Species Found:

Eastern Hognosed Snake (Heterodon platirhinos)
Chicago Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis semifasciatus)
Eastern Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum)
Northern Leopard Frog (Lithobates pipiens)
Six Lined Racerunner (Aspidoscelis sexlineata)
Fowler's Toad (Bufo fowleri)

Background:

Since Tristan, Noah and I had had so much fun on the last trip, we decided to go herping the very next weekend. We hadn't found nearly all the species that can be found at Kankakee so we made the 3 hour trip once again. This time, we were looking for the Eastern Hognosed Snake in particular. It is not an endangered snake or anything but due to the fact that it lives underground in burrows, it is very elusive and hard to come by. It also does a very elaborate display when it feels threatened, but more on that later. It was a bright and sunny day so we were hoping to find some snakes sunning themselves out in the open.

The Trip:

Tristan had found a spot on Google Earth where there were large wooden boards laying out on a grassy field. We hit that place first and flipped some huge wooden boards and even a door. We found plenty of Bull and Garter shed skins but no live snakes. We also found a few Six Lined Racerunners.

After about an hour of bad luck we got back in the car and went to the same junkyard from last time. That was when our luck turned. We hadn't even been looking for 10 minutes when I heard Tristan shout loudly, "Hog!". Noah and I dropped whatever we were doing and ran to see the snake. Tristan was holding a stocky snake about 2 ft long, coiled on his palm. The Hognosed was a first time species for all 3 of us so we were all keen to get a better look at it. It was a beautiful snake with dull but striking patterns and an upturned nose which gives it its name. It has a scale on the tip of its snout which is hard and used for digging. This particular specimen was a little beaten up. It had open wounds along its sides and on its underbelly. It had probably had an encounter with a predator of some sort, probably a human. When threatened, Hognosed snakes employ a very peculiar strategy. First, they flatten their neck and puff out their bodies to make themselves look more intimidating. If that doesn't work, they roll over, exposing their underside and play dead.

Eastern Hognosed Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

We wanted to see the its whole performance so we provoked it a little and got it to go through the whole routine for us. As expected, it first opened its mouth and hissed, then it flattened its neck and inflated its body and after that it rolled over and played dead.

Hissing at us: PC Tristan Schramer

Flattening neck and inflating ribs: PC Tristan Schramer

Rolling over and playing dead: PC Tristan Schramer

Going back home: PC Tristan Schramer

We were sad to see the Hognosed disappear back into its rubble pile but we continued on herping. It wasn't long before Noah walked up with a baby Eastern Milk Snake in his hands. It looked like it could have been the same one we had caught the week before but after looking at photos we found that it was a different one. This one was a little smaller and more brightly colored than the last one.

Eastern Milk Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

I was happy to see another Milk Snake but I was also a little sour as I was now the only one out of the 3 of us who hadn't found a snake. However, that feeling was short lived. Turns out this was just a lucky spot. About 15 minutes later I had caught a 1 ft snake from under a wooden board. All I knew about the snake was that it was non-venomous so I had caught it without hesitation as it tried to slither away when I flipped the board. Tristan identified it as a Chicago Garter Snake, an extremely common snake with no extraordinary features, but it was still a new find at Kankakee. However commonplace everyone thought this snake was, it was still my first catch in the US so I held it in higher esteem. I noticed that its eyes were neon blue, a sign that it would shed soon. Tristan said that he had seen at least 100 of these before and wasn't as entusiastic about taking pictures. So, these pictures are taken by me, with my phone camera.

Chicago Garter Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Neon blue eyes before it sheds its skin: PC Yatin Kalki

Me with my first American snake catch: PC Yatin Kalki

Chicago Garter Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

At this site we found a few more Racerunners and some Fowler's Toads but no more snakes.

Six Lined Racerunner: PC Tristan Schramer

Fowler's Toad: PC Tristan Schramer

Next, we were going to a disused railroad track just over the border in Indiana to look for Fox Snakes. On the way, we saw some frogs hopping on the roadside so we stopped to catch them. There was a ditch running all along the road, between the cornfield and the tar. Jumping into that ditch were hundreds of Northern Leopard Frogs. They were really hard to catch in the tall grass but we finally caught a few and took some pictures.

Northern Leopard Frog: PC Tristan Schramer

When we got to the railroad, the sky was getting dark and a storm was rolling in. We figured we had already come all this way, might as well go out and see what we can find, so we started walking along the tracks, flipping old planks. We still hadn't found anything when the rain started. By the time we reached the car, which was 2 miles away, we were soaked to the bone. We endured the 3 hour ride back in our drenched state. Noah wasn't too pleased with the condition of his car seats though.

From this trip, I added 3 more species to my American Herp List, putting my total at 9.

Saturday, 13 September 2014

Fall Herping in the Kankakee Sands 1

Eastern Milk Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

Date:
September 13th 2014

New Species Found:

Western Slender Glass Lizard (Ophiosaurus a. attenuatus)
Six Lined Racerunner (Aspidoscelis sexlineata)
Fowler's Toad (Bufo fowleri)
Eastern Gray Tree Frog (Hyla versicolor)
Bull Snake (Pituophis catenifer sayi)
Eastern Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum)

Background:
It had been about 3 weeks since I had left my home in Bangalore, India and started my undergraduate degree in Wildlife Conservation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I was going herping with Tristan and Noah, two fellow herpers I had met at a Wildlife Club meeting a week earlier. Tristan had been herping in the Midwest for most of his life and he had found a lot of the native species, impressive considering he was just a freshman like myself. He had loads of experience with Illinois herps so he was a useful guide to have on my first herping trip in the United States. Noah was a senior Integrative Biology major. He had herped a little here and there but his specialty was birds. He had worked in Panama the earlier semester with migratory birds. He knew a good deal about the native snakes too (a lot more than I did at the time) and he had a car, without which we wouldn't be able to find anything.

The Trip:

Tristan had been to Kankakee sometime before but he had gone in the Spring while we were going in the Fall. He had the GPS coordinates of all the species he had found last time and he was keen to look in the same spots again. Last time he had found a Glass Lizard in a thicket right next to the parking area and sure enough, this time there was a Glass Lizard not 30 feet from where we parked the car. It was in a thorny bush, sitting right next to a burrow so when we tried to catch it, it disappeared underground. I couldn't even get a good look at it, much less a photo.

We moved on through the forest and started following a trail, where Noah spotted a small lizard curled up in hole left by a deer's hoof. It was a juvenile Six Lined Racerunner. It was cold outside and the sunlight was patchy so the lizard wasn't its usual speedy self. It was sluggish and made a feeble attempt to escape when we picked it up

Six Lined Racerunner: PC Tristan Schramer

While we were walking to some of the spots where Tristan had found herps before, he spotted a Fowler's Toad hopping through the dewy grass. He caught it and explained to me the difference between the Fowler's and the American Toad, the other toad species found there.

Fowler's Toad: PC Tristan Schramer

As we were photographing the toad, we found another little amphibian. It was an Eastern Gray Tree Frog hanging out on a damp, discarded tire. Tristan moved it to a more natural setting (a tree) and proceeded to take some photos.

Eastern Gray Tree Frog: PC Tristan Schramer

We moved deeper into the Park we came across many piles of debris and rubbish. Tristan said that the large objects like tin sheets and tires offered good artificial cover for herps, so we proceeded to flip all the debris we came across. We found about 10-20 more Six Lined Racerunners but could only catch a few as they were all really fast with the heat they had absorbed from the sun, which was blazing by then. Tristan flipped a large carpet and found a juvenile Bull Snake that was about 2 ft long. It hissed and struck at him when he picked it up by the tail but it was quick to calm down when it realized we weren't hurting it. I was really excited because this was my first snake in the US. I held it and when I was confident it was not going to bite, I let it crawl all over me, even my face. Tristan wanted to photograph it curled up and ready to strike but the Bull Snake didn't want to sit still for a picture. Even when Tristan tired to provoke it into getting into the "strike pose" it just didn't see his hand as a threat. He then used a method I had never seen before to get the snake to coil up. He cupped his hands over the snake, shading it out and trapping it between the floor and his palms. When he no longer felt the snake nudging against his hand to get free, he removed his hand and there the snake was, coiled up with all body parts in the shot. We took some pictures and let the Bull Snake go back under its carpet.

Bull Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

We tried a few more spots where Tristan had found Blue Racers before, but had no luck. We decided to try looking in a nearby junkyard where a friend of Tristan's had found a Hognosed Snake sometime in the past, so we got back in the car and drove there. That place was really a dump. There was a broken down trailer and a whole house with all its parts lying in a radius around its foundation. Roof tiles, drywall, glass panes and tin sheets lay strewn about. I wondered how any animals would be able to survive in such an environment, but Tristan assured me that we would find something if we just kept flipping the debris. We found a few more Racerunners and Fowler's Toads but it wasn't till late evening that we found a snake. I had just caught a Fowler's Toad and I called Tristan over to log its GPS coordinates. As he was walking over, he kicked a large piece of rubber and underneath it was a gorgeous baby Eastern Milk Snake. We forgot all about the Fowler's Toad as we took turns examining the colorful 1 ft snake. I couldn't get over how smooth and shiny its scales were and how the red and white color pattern was so unlike any of the snakes I had seen before. The checkerboard belly and the little white heart it had on its head made it all the more intriguing. Needless to say, the baby Eastern Milk Snake is one of my favorite snakes in the world.

Eastern Milk Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

Eastern Milk Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

Checkerboard Underbelly: PC Tristan Schramer

Heart shape on head: PC Tristan Schramer

We decided to head back to campus after we released the Milk Snake back under its rubber sheet. I had opened up my American Herp List with 6 species and I had 6 new ones to add to my Life List. All in all, it had been a very good herping trip and it left me craving more.