Turkey, april 2014

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Thor Hakonsen
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Turkey, april 2014

Post by Thor Hakonsen »

Seems I forgot to post a report from my spring trip of 2014

I'm not the best writer, so I will do what I do best - show my photos, with some information. Feel free to ask anything, and I will answer as good as possible.

This time our trip went to the area around Dalyan, Turkey - the target species was Montivipera xanthina and Chamaleo chameleon.
We arrived Dalaman Airport saturday 29.march, and we stayed til 05.april

The reptile species that was most abundant, was Testudo graeca ibera

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This specimen, had a missing eye.. but seemed to do well. A big and old specimen - who knows - perhaps he had survived all world wars ?
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We did not see to many turtles, but there were some - but I did not use much time on these this year, as we always was on our way to the next potential spot for Xanthina :)

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We off course had to stop by the hot spring near the Dalaman Airport, to have a look at the Nile Soft-shell Turtles (Trionyx tringuis) - we also did see some specimens in the Dalyan River

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I had some hopes finding Pelobates, but no luck - we did find 3 other species of amphibians

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Pelophylax ridibundus

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Bufo viridis

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Lycasalamandra fazilae

We did see a few Lacerta trilineata in the start of the trip, and I was always thinking that I could get some good shots of them in the end - after I got some cracking shots of the viper
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So this is all I got..

Trachylephis aurata were rather common
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Two other lizard species was rather common, the small and swift Ophisops elegans

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And off cource, the agama (Laudakia stellio)

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On a trip to a waterfall north of Köycegiz we found a couple of specimens of Anatololacerta oertzeni. fabolous little creatures. A dream for a photographer, as they almost follow you around :)

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In the end, we ended up with 5 species of snakes :

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Dolocophis jugularis

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Natrix natrix persa

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Natrix tesselata

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Hemmorhois nummifer

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Eirenis modestus

And as nyone can understand from that - we did not find our target species..

This species does not cover up for it, in any way :

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Blanus strauchi

So I guess I will be back - or travel to another location with M.xanthina :)
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krismunk
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Re: Turkey, april 2014

Post by krismunk »

Nice report - love the Lyciasalamandra.

Based on my experience with most of those species and close relatives of the rest I'm pretty impressed with your snake and lizard photos.

... oh, and crazy me would happily swap a Montivipera for a Blanus.
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Thor Hakonsen
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Re: Turkey, april 2014

Post by Thor Hakonsen »

krismunk wrote:Nice report - love the Lyciasalamandra.

Based on my experience with most of those species and close relatives of the rest I'm pretty impressed with your snake and lizard photos.

... oh, and crazy me would happily swap a Montivipera for a Blanus.

Thanks - they seldom pose without any convincing first :)

And as for the Blanus/Montivipera switch - we all know that danish people are a bit alternative ;)
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PrimitiveTim
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Re: Turkey, april 2014

Post by PrimitiveTim »

Awesome! I love seeing Turkish herps! Your O. Elegens is so much prettier than the ones I used to see around Ankara. Did you shine at night for chameleons? I've only ever seen two during the day and they were both in Antalya. I never found any v. xanthina but I have found ammodytes in Turkey. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about herping Turkey. I lived there during high school so I got to see quite a bit of the country.
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Chad M. Lane
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Re: Turkey, april 2014

Post by Chad M. Lane »

Fantastic photos of some interesting species, thanks for sharing!



Thanks,
Chad
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Thor Hakonsen
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Re: Turkey, april 2014

Post by Thor Hakonsen »

PrimitiveTim wrote:Awesome! I love seeing Turkish herps! Your O. Elegens is so much prettier than the ones I used to see around Ankara. Did you shine at night for chameleons? I've only ever seen two during the day and they were both in Antalya. I never found any v. xanthina but I have found ammodytes in Turkey. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about herping Turkey. I lived there during high school so I got to see quite a bit of the country.
Hi Tim,

Yes were out at night looking for chameleons, with powerful torches. But no luck !

As for the V.xanthina, I probably will look for them in Greece the next time, Thrace og Chios. But I will probably go back to Turkey at some point, there are plenty of species I''ve not seen yet :)
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Mike VanValen
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Re: Turkey, april 2014

Post by Mike VanValen »

What is the second turtle species? I love seeing these obscure herping locations, thanks for sharing.
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Thor Hakonsen
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Re: Turkey, april 2014

Post by Thor Hakonsen »

Mike VanValen wrote:What is the second turtle species? I love seeing these obscure herping locations, thanks for sharing.
The second turtle species is Nile Soft-Shell Turtle (Trionyx tringuis) - this is an relict population of these turtles.
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