Africa: 2013 Year in Review

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Scott Lupien
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Joined: June 15th, 2010, 5:15 am

Africa: 2013 Year in Review

Post by Scott Lupien »

Hello, everyone! It’s been a year since my last post and 2013 was a very busy year for me and my Chinese hunting safari business. This year I spent five months in Africa over the course of three trips and visited five countries (South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania.) In the course of taking clients on safari in Africa, I do get to do some herping and find some pretty cool herps. This year Kevin Messenger even got to join one of my groups -- thanks to a great client of mine who met Kevin in Beijing and offered to sponsor his plane ticket to join us in South Africa (you’ll be seeing a complete post from Kevin on this subject soon, with photos far superior to mine and great commentary, as usual!) Now, as I did last year, I am sitting down at the end of the year to post some of the cool finds of the year.

First I’ll share some Testudines. The areas that I went this year had only four species and I found all of them. In fact on one rainy day in November I found all four! Here is a marsh terrapin, Pelomedusa subrufa. These are the most common species and show up everywhere after a good rain. I took this picture in the Selous (Tanzania) after just such a rain. It was very far from any permanent water or river bed, which is normal for this aquatic animal (as they just burrow into the mud and aestivate during the dry months.)

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There are three tortoise species found in the areas I went this year and they are most common after it rains. The most widespread and commonly seen is the leopard tortoise, Stigmochelys pardalis. This year I found over a dozen of them. Here are a couple from South Africa:

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This year I saw only one Kalahari tent tortoise, Psammobates oculiferus:

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The third species is the Bell’s hinged tortoise, Kinixys belliana, and I found five of them the same day I found the above tent tortoise. Here are a couple of specimens:

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Nile crocodiles Crocodylus niloticus are common in most rivers in Africa and I saw plenty of them this year. This particular one was very aggressive and would not leave us alone. We were trying to fish along the bank and it kept coming after us.

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Lizards are the most common, both in terms of overall numbers and species diversity. I’ll share some of the species I found this year, though many I will leave for Kevin to share. My favorites are the monitors and I found plenty of both species this year. Here are a few Nile monitors, Varanus niloticus:
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And white-throated (rock) monitor, Varanus albigularis:
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I also really like the agamas. They are large, colorful lizards and there are quite a few species. This year I saw plenty of tree agamas, Acanthocercus atricollis:
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There are also plenty of skinks of various species. Here are just a few.

Rainbow skink, Trachylepsis margaritifer:
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Another Trachylepsis species (not sure which of the “striped skinks” it is)
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And another:
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This is a spotted sand lizard, Pedioplanis lineoocellata:
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Here is a black girdled lizard, Cordylus niger from the very southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope. I found a few literally on the cape itself.
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One would think that, given all the time I spend in Africa each year, that I would have seen lots and lots of snakes. That is all the more true given that I am always looking for them! But despite the huge variety and large numbers of snakes in Africa, they are actually not that easy to find in most areas. As Kevin will describe in his upcoming post, snakes are pretty difficult to find! That said, I did find some (and there are others that I will not post here because I don’t want to steal Kevin’s thunder.)

Here is a 6-foot rock python, Python natalensis, that I found crossing a dirt road one night in Zimbabwe. This is the first small one I have seen (the other three have all been over 4 meters long.)
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And here is a big one taking a shot at Kevin!
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This is a short-snouted sand snake, Psammophis brevirostris, from Johannesberg (in my friend’s yard):
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And it’s close relative, the western strip-bellied sand snake, Psammophis subtaeniatus. This is the species I see most frequently of all African snakes. Kevin will report seeing one in his post, but did not get a photo. This is most likely the same specimen, as I found it five months earlier in the same spot where Kevin saw it (along the bank of the Olifants River near Hoedspruit.)
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Sadly, this Mozambique spitting cobra, Naja mossambica, was shot by the ranch manager at a place I went in November. I found it early the next morning as a DOR.
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This little beauty is one of my favorites, the horned adder (Bitis caudalis). I found two of them this year near Musina in South Africa:
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That same friend in Johannesberg has a dog that loves to kill snakes. When I spent the night there one night, the next morning his dogs brought in this rhombic night adder, Causus rhombeatus:
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The brown house snake, Lamprophis capensis, is supposedly very common. This year I flipped this juvenile one and found two others that had recently been killed by dogs or humans.
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This year I saw four black mambas, Dendroaspis polyepis. All were seen crossing dirt roads while driving around. Two of them were massive, over four meters long and as thick as my forearm. But they took off very quickly as soon as we saw them and I could not catch up to either of them for a photo. I’ll let Kevin describe the third one. This is the last one I saw and also the smallest, about 2.5 meters long. I jumped out of the Land Cruiser and was able to get quite close for some photos. Unfortunately I didn’t have my 300mm lens attached and the photos didn’t turn out very clear. But it was a very cool experience to be close to this snake!
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Next year I will spend at least as much time in Africa again and it looks like Kevin will get another opportunity to join us. I’ll share my findings!
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Kevin Messenger
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Re: Africa: 2013 Year in Review

Post by Kevin Messenger »

man Scott.... so awesome to see the other species since I left. Great overview!!

and I love how toothy that Nile croc is!
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Scott Lupien
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Re: Africa: 2013 Year in Review

Post by Scott Lupien »

Yeah, Kevin! I wish you could have stayed for the next safari in the Natal because snakes seem to be much more common there and I was there at a good time to find them (the mamba, DOR cobra, dead house snake, rock monitor and one tortoise were all found in the two short days I was there). Hopefully you will get to join us again next year and have more luck in the snake department! That said, we did at least find quite a few herps together including several really awesome ones. But I left most of these out of my post because I want to let you be the one to share them here. By the way, when are we going to get to see your post?

You will notice that the first Nile monitor is in the same place where we saw them at Bush River Lodge (but this shot was taken in May.) The second one was the one I photographed and then ran to tell you about it -- then you found a smaller one instead.
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Kevin Messenger
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Re: Africa: 2013 Year in Review

Post by Kevin Messenger »

Scott Lupien wrote:By the way, when are we going to get to see your post?
Hoping to get to it after the Thailand post
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Roki
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Re: Africa: 2013 Year in Review

Post by Roki »

Awesome post! Love the shot of the python going for Kevin and the nice one of the colorful horned adder. Good luck getting a shot of a black mamba.
Roki
Durban Keeper
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Joined: August 29th, 2011, 11:26 pm

Re: Africa: 2013 Year in Review

Post by Durban Keeper »

Very pretty little Boaedon you guys found. Nice pics.
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Scott Lupien
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Re: Africa: 2013 Year in Review

Post by Scott Lupien »

Thanks, Roki and Durban Keeper! Stay tuned for Kevin's post. As usual, his photography and narration will be excellent.

One night I was driving back from hunting and Kevin was not in the car. We were on a highway and I saw a snake that appeared to be a large brown house snake on the shoulder of the highway, but moving off the road. I got the PH to turn around and go back, but it was already gone and we couldn't find it. So unfortunately Kevin didn't get to see this species. But we got that same PH to drive us on the back roads the next night, specifically road cruising for herps. I'll leave that story for Kevin to tell!

Scott
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