Morocco - april 2015

[Thor Hakonsen]

Between 02. and 09.april we were in the south-west of Morocco. We flew in from Norway to Marrakech, and used the first day to drive south to Guelmim, and the last day to drive north again.

All our trips out in the field was in the area, Assa-Guelmim-Tan Tan. As I'm not the story teller as many others here, I will just show the pictures that I got from the trip. Please feel free to ask any questions, and I will answer the if I can.

Amietophrynus mauritanicus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Amietophrynus marutinanicus, Tighmert


Chalcides occelatus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Chalcides occelatus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Chalcides occelatus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Chalcides occelatus, Fask


Chalcides polylepis by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Chalcides plylepis, between Guelmim and Tan Tan


Acanthodactylus pardalis by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Acanthodactylus pardalis, Tan Tan


Uromastyx acanthinura by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Uromastyx acanthinura, Assa


Agama impalearis by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Agama impalearis, Assa


Tropicolotes algericus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Tropicolotes algericus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Tropicolotes algericus, Aoiunet Lahna


Tarentola chazilae by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Tarentola chazilae by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Tarentola chazilae by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Tarentola chazilae, Tan Tan


Stenodactylus mauritanicus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Stenodactylus mauritanicus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Stenodactylus mauritanica, Tan Tan


Stenodactylus mauritanicus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Stenodactylus mauritanicus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Stenodactylus mauritanica, Fask


Rhagerhis moilensis by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Rhagerhis moilensis by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Rhagerhis moilensis by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Rhagheris moilensis, between Guelmim and Tan Tan


Spalerosophis dolichospilus by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Spalerosophis dolichospilus, near Fask


Psammophis sokhari by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Psammophis sokhari by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Psammophis sokhari by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Psammophis schokari, between Guelmim and Tan Tan


Bitis arietans by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Bitis arietans by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Bitis arietans by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Bitis arietans by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Bitis arietans, Tan Tan


Macrovipera mauritanica by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Macrovipera mauritanica by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Macrovipera mauritanica, Tan Tan


Cerastes cerastes by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Cerastes cerastes by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Cerastes cerastes by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Cerastes cerastes by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Cerastes cerastes by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr

Cerastes cerastes by Thor Hakonsen, on Flickr
Cerastes cerastes, Fask


Species list :

Amietophrynus marutinanicus
Bufotes boulengeri
Pelophylax saharicus

Mauremys leprosa

Tarentola mauritanica
Tarentola chazilae
Stenodactylus mauritanica
Tropicolotes algericus
Agama impalearis
Trapelus boehmei
Uromastyx acanthinura
Acanthodactylus pardalis (and probably at least one more species of these..)
Chalcides polylepis
Chalcides occelatus

Spalerosophis dolichospilus
Rhagheris moilensis
Psammophis schokari
Macrovipera mauritanica
Bitis arietans
Cerastes cerastes

[MattSullivan]

man those vipers are so nice, especially the cerastes

[PrimitiveTim]

Dang!!! I wanna go there and find those vipers and geckos!!! Definitely gonna need to get out to N. Africa sometime in my life.

[Azemiops]

Fantastic set of photos, Thor. Looks like you have a productive trip!

I head out to Morocco (Agadir-Guelmim) at the end of this month, to hopefully photograph Bitis arietans, and of coure Naja haje

How hot is it out there at the moment? And we you finding most of these animals during the day, or at night?

Thanks,

[Thor Hakonsen]

Fantastic set of photos, Thor. Looks like you have a productive trip!

I head out to Morocco (Agadir-Guelmim) at the end of this month, to hopefully photograph Bitis arietans, and of coure Naja haje

How hot is it out there at the moment? And we you finding most of these animals during the day, or at night?

Thanks,

The temperature varied a lot - when we arrived we had around 35 degress Celsius at daytime, but the second night we had a significant drop in temperatures and the daytime temp was around 18-20 degrees with night temps at around 12-13 degrees. This meant that no reptiles was active at night (except for some geckos) - the temp rose a bit at the end of our stay. But still rather cold nights.

[John Delgado]

Mr. Hakonsen,

I am 59 years of age and new to field herping as of a year ago, just now learning about in situ photography.

My camera is a Nikon D80 and learning how to use it is ... well ... I'll get there

My wife and I are viewing your web site and we gasp at every shot.

Thank you for taking the time to post your work here at FHF ... your work is better than National Geographic, your work is astounding real life art.

And that Cereastes cerastes, fo me, is ... is ... words ...???

Thank you - jd

[Thor Hakonsen]

Mr. Hakonsen,

I am 59 years of age and new to field herping as of a year ago, just now learning about in situ photography.

My camera is a Nikon D80 and learning how to use it is ... well ... I'll get there

My wife and I are viewing your web site and we gasp at every shot.

Thank you for taking the time to post your work here at FHF ... your work is better than National Geographic, your work is astounding real life art.

And that Cereastes cerastes, fo me, is ... is ... words ...???

Thank you - jd

Thank you very much John ! Much appreciated, and all the best to your photography ! Just remember to take many, many, many shots -and if you do not give up. You will get were you want !

[peterknuteberg]

Thor, great post. Loved your photography. Nicely done. Tusen takk.

[Muchobirdnerd]

Well done! The last one....

[Hans Breuer (twoton)]

Great set of photos, Thor! Your shallow DOF brings the faces, and in some cases only the eyes, in focus and lets them tell the story. I find it particularly nice since it lets the animals blend into the background, which is more or less the color of the animals. Is that a personal technique you developed over the years, or just one of many?

What lens did you use?

[orionmystery]

Great set, beautiful pics!

Love the lizards and the horned vipers!

[LouB747]

Great pics. Love that last shot!

[krisbell]

Fantastic photos as always Thor - Its such a shame I missed your trip. Of course the Bitis, Macrovipera and Cerastes are superstars, but the highlights for me here are the geckos Stenodactylus (beautiful coloration) and Tarentola (looks like a puppy). Both are captured superbly in their environment.

[Thor Hakonsen]

Great set of photos, Thor! Your shallow DOF brings the faces, and in some cases only the eyes, in focus and lets them tell the story. I find it particularly nice since it lets the animals blend into the background, which is more or less the color of the animals. Is that a personal technique you developed over the years, or just one of many?

What lens did you use?

Thanks Hans, and sorry for the late reply..

I would say one of more techniques - but it is also direct caused by trying to use macro lens and natural light - and therefore usually shooting wide open aperture (more or less)

For these shots I used two cameras, the Nikon D4 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 VR Macro and the Olympus E-M1 with 40-150 f/2.8 PRO

[Antonsrkn]

Great shots, really enjoy your photography! Thanks for sharing with us, and like everyone else I'm now thinking how I need to get myself over to N. Africa!

[Hans Breuer (twoton)]

Thanks for the explanation, Thor!

[Thor Hakonsen]

Stenodactylus mauritanicus

[Jim Wetherall]

Another great set of photos, good job!
With any luck I will be heading out to North Morocco at the end of the year, if I find half of what you did I'll be happy!

[Thor Hakonsen]

Thanks Jim,

Going north in Morocco you will probably only find half the species we found. But you migth find some that does not occur down south where we was

[justinm]

Epic posting. I loved the vipers couldn't stop looking at them. The Tarentola chazilae were new to me and wow, they're very cool to see.

Justin Michels