EOY Blue Iguanas, Pyros, and What a 6-ft Caiman is Afraid Of
Posted: February 4th, 2015, 5:04 pm
Ther have been a number of amazing EOY reports on this forum that really raise the bar, both in rare sightings, quantity of species seen, and quality of photography. Congrats to all of you. I only took a few herping trips this year, but the ones I took were epic.
The year started out with a trip to Grand Cayman, where I was invited to teach a week-long class at St. Matthews University. I gave 2 to 3 hours of lectures in the mornings, leaving my afternoons and weekends open.
Of course the must-see herp on Grand Cayman is the Blue Iguana, Cyclura lewisi.
They have black feet.
A subadult
Female
Green Iguanas are an invasive species on the island, and are visible throughout the city of Gerogetown in parking lots and on buildings.
The local turtle is a slider called the Hickatee, Trachemys decussate angusta.
Blue-throated Anole, Anolis conspersus.
The beautiful Cayman Racer, Cubophis (Alsophis) cantherigerus camanus. I brushed against a plant called the maiden plum while taking this picture; it’s ten times worse than poison ivy and left me with weeping sores that looked like skin cancer, took months to heal, and left me with scars.
Not in the field, but I saw my first Olive Ridley Turtle at the Cayman Turtle Farm.
We flew to Cayma Brac for one night, were we saw this Little Cayman Green Anole, Anlois maynardi, which has become established on the Brac.
The Wood Slave Gecko, Aristelliger praesignis, in a hole in a limestone bluff.
Many of the crevices in the limestone bluffs serve as communal nesting sites for the Wood Slaves, and hatched-out eggshells remain.
This Sister Islands Rock Iguana, Cyclura nubila caymanensis, was hiding under a ledge in the shallow caves.
Another one about to cross the road.
Hemiptera nymphs with a dung ball.
In May we went to Arizona, hoping to see my first Mountain Kingsnakes, Lampropeltis pyromelana, in the wild. Some friends conducting research on a den of Arizona Black Rattlesnakes, Crotalus cerberus, invited us to their site with a good chance of seeing both species.
Canyon Treefrog, Hyla arenicolor
A double, the first of nine pyros.
Juvenile
We saw a pile of cerbs too, some in cracks, some on the crawl. Each was photographed as found without moving or manipulating them.
The prettiest one was on the crawl.
Down in the desert, a Sonoran Gophersnake, Pituophis catenifer affinis.
Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus.
A quick trip to Carl Koch’s Eastern Hognose spot proved to be a week late for nesting season; it was hard to judge timing this year due to the unusually cold spring.
Blue-spotted Salamander, Ambystoma laterale.
Red-bellied snake, Storeria occipitomaculata.
One pretty Eastern Hog-nosed Snake, Heterodon platirhinos, was found under a railroad tie.
Finally I visited the Pantanal of Brazil, the largest wetland ecosystem in the world. It covers 75,000 square miles, an area the size of the state of Georgia.
We went during the dry season in September and stayed at four different ecolodges up and down the Transpantanal Highway.
I posted images of the mammals we saw, including jaguars, tapirs, giant anteaters, and giant river otters, here: http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... 38&t=21407
I posted images of the birds we saw, including hyacinth macaws, rheas, toucans, and many hawks and herons, here: http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... 19&t=21393
The entrance to the Pantanal. The gate is there so that they can close the road which becomes impassable in the rainy season.
The “highway” is a dirt road 91 miles (147 km) long and has 122 wooden bridges like this. It takes 5-plus hours to drive from the entrance to the end.
Most of the lodges have trucks to drive tourists around looking for wildlife.
Amazon Milk Treefrog, Trachycephalus typhonius.
Mato Grosso Oval Frog, Elachistocleis matogrosso.
Warty-snouted Treefrog, Scinax acuminatus.
Family outing.
Rococo Toad, Rhinella schneideri.
They said don’t go beyond the end of the bridge, as fresh jaguar tracks had been seen there in the last couple of days.
Giant water lilies.
Clicking Frog, Lysapus limellum. These little guys were just under an inch long.
Chaco Treefrog, Hypsiboas raniceps.
Red-footed Tortoise, Chelonoidis carbonaria. This was a female, a young adult still showing annular rings on her scutes, about 10 pounds. I spotted her near a cattle fence on the property of one lodge when the truck stopped to open a gate.
Black and White Tegus, Tupinambis merianae, were very common walking around the yards of the lodges; I regret not talking more time to photograph them.
Most of the tegus were muddy and dirty.
This one found a hide in the curb of a walkway at a pretty fancy hotel (not one of our ecotourist lodges).
Snail
Tropical Brushfoot or Eighty Eight (see the top one for how they got that name), Callicore hydaspes.
Central Sipo Snake, Chironius quadricarinatus.
A small, pretty snake, Erythrolamprus poecilogyrus. It fills the same niche that gartersnakes do.
A juvenile Mato Grosso Lancehead, Bothrops mattogrossensis.
A woman in our party, a non-herper, came running to us in a panic one night because a snake in her room had bitten her and she was sure she was going to die. We knew it was a harmless watersnake of some kind, and she was reassured when it bit us with no effect during photography. With research we identified it as Hydrops caesurus, only described in 2005. I was unable to find images of it on the internet; this may be the first one.
The most abundant herp in the Pantanal is the Yacare Caiman, Caiman yacare. They were hunted until rare, then protected, and like the American Alligator, have made an astounding comeback. Caimans are present in virtually every body of water from ditch to pond to lake to river.
The guide threw a fish to try to entice a hawk to swoop and grab it for a photo op. He had stuffed leaves in the fish’s mouth so it wouldn’t sink. This caiman stole it before the hawk could try for it.
The one animal we had hoped to see and didn’t was a Yellow Anaconda. They are frequently seen crossing the Transpantanal Highway, but as is so often the case when road cruising, our target species eluded us.
Nevertheless, we made up for that miss by witnessing this.
It was twilight; the sun was below the horizon but the sky was still light. We spotted this female jaguar walking along the riverbank, weaving in and out of the thick grass.
She seemed to be on a mission, and often approached the shore. We followed her in our boat for over 30 minutes, as it got darker and darker. It was almost full night when she approached the shore, and she suddenly jumped completely into the river, disappearing below a thick matt of floating plants.
All was quiet for almost two minutes. It was so dark it was hard to see, but there was no movement or splashing. I switched to a shorter, faster lens due to the dark conditions (70-200, f2.8) and cranked my ISO to 6400, in case something happened.
Suddenly a white upside down “V” rose straight up from the floating plants. There was a shadow behind it, and we could barely make out what was happening in the dark.
She had caught a 6-foot-long caiman and had hold of it by the back of its skull. It appeared that her canine teeth had punctured the brain, incapacitating the caiman, which was already limp and never struggled.
She pulled it up on shore and shifted her grip. Check out the claws.
She grabbed the caiman by the throat…..
….and dragged it into the tall grass.
The guides said that in over 300 jaguar observations, this was only the second predation event they had witnessed (the other one also caught a caiman). I’m sorry the images aren’t of better quality, but it was almost full night, and it was so dark that mine were the only images from the three boats from our lodge that came out at all.
If you caught this amazing video of another jaguar catching a caiman posted on YouTube by National Geographic, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBNYwxDZ_pA, we were on the exact same river. The video is worth a look.
I hope that makes up for the lack of anacondas.
Thanks for looking, and check out my other Pantanal posts in the mammal and bird forums. There are a lot more jaguar images.
The year started out with a trip to Grand Cayman, where I was invited to teach a week-long class at St. Matthews University. I gave 2 to 3 hours of lectures in the mornings, leaving my afternoons and weekends open.
Of course the must-see herp on Grand Cayman is the Blue Iguana, Cyclura lewisi.
They have black feet.
A subadult
Female
Green Iguanas are an invasive species on the island, and are visible throughout the city of Gerogetown in parking lots and on buildings.
The local turtle is a slider called the Hickatee, Trachemys decussate angusta.
Blue-throated Anole, Anolis conspersus.
The beautiful Cayman Racer, Cubophis (Alsophis) cantherigerus camanus. I brushed against a plant called the maiden plum while taking this picture; it’s ten times worse than poison ivy and left me with weeping sores that looked like skin cancer, took months to heal, and left me with scars.
Not in the field, but I saw my first Olive Ridley Turtle at the Cayman Turtle Farm.
We flew to Cayma Brac for one night, were we saw this Little Cayman Green Anole, Anlois maynardi, which has become established on the Brac.
The Wood Slave Gecko, Aristelliger praesignis, in a hole in a limestone bluff.
Many of the crevices in the limestone bluffs serve as communal nesting sites for the Wood Slaves, and hatched-out eggshells remain.
This Sister Islands Rock Iguana, Cyclura nubila caymanensis, was hiding under a ledge in the shallow caves.
Another one about to cross the road.
Hemiptera nymphs with a dung ball.
In May we went to Arizona, hoping to see my first Mountain Kingsnakes, Lampropeltis pyromelana, in the wild. Some friends conducting research on a den of Arizona Black Rattlesnakes, Crotalus cerberus, invited us to their site with a good chance of seeing both species.
Canyon Treefrog, Hyla arenicolor
A double, the first of nine pyros.
Juvenile
We saw a pile of cerbs too, some in cracks, some on the crawl. Each was photographed as found without moving or manipulating them.
The prettiest one was on the crawl.
Down in the desert, a Sonoran Gophersnake, Pituophis catenifer affinis.
Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus.
A quick trip to Carl Koch’s Eastern Hognose spot proved to be a week late for nesting season; it was hard to judge timing this year due to the unusually cold spring.
Blue-spotted Salamander, Ambystoma laterale.
Red-bellied snake, Storeria occipitomaculata.
One pretty Eastern Hog-nosed Snake, Heterodon platirhinos, was found under a railroad tie.
Finally I visited the Pantanal of Brazil, the largest wetland ecosystem in the world. It covers 75,000 square miles, an area the size of the state of Georgia.
We went during the dry season in September and stayed at four different ecolodges up and down the Transpantanal Highway.
I posted images of the mammals we saw, including jaguars, tapirs, giant anteaters, and giant river otters, here: http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... 38&t=21407
I posted images of the birds we saw, including hyacinth macaws, rheas, toucans, and many hawks and herons, here: http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... 19&t=21393
The entrance to the Pantanal. The gate is there so that they can close the road which becomes impassable in the rainy season.
The “highway” is a dirt road 91 miles (147 km) long and has 122 wooden bridges like this. It takes 5-plus hours to drive from the entrance to the end.
Most of the lodges have trucks to drive tourists around looking for wildlife.
Amazon Milk Treefrog, Trachycephalus typhonius.
Mato Grosso Oval Frog, Elachistocleis matogrosso.
Warty-snouted Treefrog, Scinax acuminatus.
Family outing.
Rococo Toad, Rhinella schneideri.
They said don’t go beyond the end of the bridge, as fresh jaguar tracks had been seen there in the last couple of days.
Giant water lilies.
Clicking Frog, Lysapus limellum. These little guys were just under an inch long.
Chaco Treefrog, Hypsiboas raniceps.
Red-footed Tortoise, Chelonoidis carbonaria. This was a female, a young adult still showing annular rings on her scutes, about 10 pounds. I spotted her near a cattle fence on the property of one lodge when the truck stopped to open a gate.
Black and White Tegus, Tupinambis merianae, were very common walking around the yards of the lodges; I regret not talking more time to photograph them.
Most of the tegus were muddy and dirty.
This one found a hide in the curb of a walkway at a pretty fancy hotel (not one of our ecotourist lodges).
Snail
Tropical Brushfoot or Eighty Eight (see the top one for how they got that name), Callicore hydaspes.
Central Sipo Snake, Chironius quadricarinatus.
A small, pretty snake, Erythrolamprus poecilogyrus. It fills the same niche that gartersnakes do.
A juvenile Mato Grosso Lancehead, Bothrops mattogrossensis.
A woman in our party, a non-herper, came running to us in a panic one night because a snake in her room had bitten her and she was sure she was going to die. We knew it was a harmless watersnake of some kind, and she was reassured when it bit us with no effect during photography. With research we identified it as Hydrops caesurus, only described in 2005. I was unable to find images of it on the internet; this may be the first one.
The most abundant herp in the Pantanal is the Yacare Caiman, Caiman yacare. They were hunted until rare, then protected, and like the American Alligator, have made an astounding comeback. Caimans are present in virtually every body of water from ditch to pond to lake to river.
The guide threw a fish to try to entice a hawk to swoop and grab it for a photo op. He had stuffed leaves in the fish’s mouth so it wouldn’t sink. This caiman stole it before the hawk could try for it.
The one animal we had hoped to see and didn’t was a Yellow Anaconda. They are frequently seen crossing the Transpantanal Highway, but as is so often the case when road cruising, our target species eluded us.
Nevertheless, we made up for that miss by witnessing this.
It was twilight; the sun was below the horizon but the sky was still light. We spotted this female jaguar walking along the riverbank, weaving in and out of the thick grass.
She seemed to be on a mission, and often approached the shore. We followed her in our boat for over 30 minutes, as it got darker and darker. It was almost full night when she approached the shore, and she suddenly jumped completely into the river, disappearing below a thick matt of floating plants.
All was quiet for almost two minutes. It was so dark it was hard to see, but there was no movement or splashing. I switched to a shorter, faster lens due to the dark conditions (70-200, f2.8) and cranked my ISO to 6400, in case something happened.
Suddenly a white upside down “V” rose straight up from the floating plants. There was a shadow behind it, and we could barely make out what was happening in the dark.
She had caught a 6-foot-long caiman and had hold of it by the back of its skull. It appeared that her canine teeth had punctured the brain, incapacitating the caiman, which was already limp and never struggled.
She pulled it up on shore and shifted her grip. Check out the claws.
She grabbed the caiman by the throat…..
….and dragged it into the tall grass.
The guides said that in over 300 jaguar observations, this was only the second predation event they had witnessed (the other one also caught a caiman). I’m sorry the images aren’t of better quality, but it was almost full night, and it was so dark that mine were the only images from the three boats from our lodge that came out at all.
If you caught this amazing video of another jaguar catching a caiman posted on YouTube by National Geographic, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBNYwxDZ_pA, we were on the exact same river. The video is worth a look.
I hope that makes up for the lack of anacondas.
Thanks for looking, and check out my other Pantanal posts in the mammal and bird forums. There are a lot more jaguar images.