Taiwan reptiles from the first half of 2016

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
numpty
Posts: 80
Joined: September 26th, 2012, 6:45 am
Location: Taiwan

Taiwan reptiles from the first half of 2016

Post by numpty »

Over the past couple of years I've been poking around northern Taiwan, sometimes further south, looking for amphibians. This year I thought I'd try to look a little harder for reptiles as well. I'll admit I'm still not very good at it. Anyway, here are some photos from the first half of the year. I really can't recommend ploughing through all the words I'm about to put down here, but maybe some of the pictures will be adequate.

Indian forest skinks are easy to see in open areas during the day.

Sphenomorphus indicus
Image

Likewise for the five-lined blue-tailed skinks, the tails of which fade with age, until they look like chunkier versions of the forest skink.

Plestiodon elegans (formerly Eumeces elegans)
Image
Image

Geckos are everywhere, though I'm not very good at identifying them ...
Image

Unfortunately my pitcher plants - both Sarracenia and Nepenthes - occasionally take a few from my patio. I'm currently trying various strategies to avoid last year's slaughter, with mixed results.
Image

On to the frog-eaters. Good stuff, but not a gargantuan haul for several months' work. I doubt snake numbers are down that much, so I have to assume poor technique on my part. This is all nocturnal stuff as I tend to prefer night prowling.

The nearest national park, Yangmingshan, was the target of many trips, and the site of the first batch of photos. Things got off to a good start on my first dedicated snake hunt when I came across a Taiwan habu in a ditch, seconds after switching my flashlight on.

Protobothrops mucrosquamatus
Image
Image

I've also encountered quite a few red-banded snakes in this park. Some people dismiss these, but I have a soft spot for them. Many a night that would otherwise have been completely devoid of reptiles was brightened by this species. Despite the pugnacious looks on their faces, I find them quite elegant beasts. They please me.

Dinodon rufozonatum
Image
Image
Image

Most nights turn up a few sleeping japaluras, though I seem to have a mental block when it comes to distinguishing J. swinhonis from J. polygonata. All japalura IDs here will be pure guesswork, but Murphy's Law suggests they'll all be wrong.

Japalura polygonata?
Image

On another trip here I came across the local slug-eating snake. Formerly known solely as Pareas formosensis, this was recently split into three (P. formosensis, P. atayal and P. komaii), distinguished by varying degrees of scale-keeling, eye-colour and lower jaw-length. The different species also have a difference in the imbalance between the number of teeth on the left and right sides of their mouths, and a preference for different prey (slugs vs. snails). I'm not entirely convinced by this splitting, but what do I know. The yellow-eyed version in the north is now Pareas atayal, the epithet referring to the Atayal people indigenous to the area of the type specimen.

Pareas atayal
Image
Image

An apparently common snake that I only saw a single specimen of (alive, anyway): the greater green snake. It was on the move to its sleeping spot so I only got a couple of fuzzy snaps as it departed.

Cyclophiops major
Image

The square-headed cat snake, or cat-headed square snake - I dunno, I get confused. Another common English name is the Kelung cat snake, after the type locality rendered with a previous transliteration - "Jilong" is the current pronunciation and transliteration, but I've never seen it called the Jilong cat snake.

Boiga kraepelini
Image
Image
Image

I also visit a spot south of Taipei, on the way to the village of Wulai. I usually look for frogs here, but there are sometimes snakes to be seen as well. Sometimes squished on the road, like a beautiful, big, greater green snake that someone had apparently gone out of their way to run over on a scooter. Anyway, below is a much happier find - a MacClelland's coral snake - though my happiness apparently prevented me from taking decent pictures of it. Google will reveal much nicer photos of this beautiful snake.

Sinomicrurus macclellandi
Image
Image

And a shy Taiwan kukri snake on the same wall further down the road. How cute.

Oligodon formosanus
Image
Image

I was also extremely puzzled to find a turtle, probably Ocadia sinensis, floating in a large bucket in one of the froggy areas. Unless this is a rare climbing turtle, or it made an extremely athletic jump from the reservoir off to the side, somebody put it there ... either because they think turtles can live happily in buckets, or because they were going to come back and move it. Who put it there, and where they found it in the first place ... I'm not smart enough to work out. I decided to transport and release it in a plausible pond elsewhere. (I'm not going to bother posting pictures of red-eared terrapins, which are everywhere.)
Image

I also visit an "eco park" within the city proper; a place where Taipei green tree frogs torment me in droves, calling from their little burrows while remaining stubbornly invisible. Its easy accessibility means it can be overrun by hollering groups of wildlife "enthusiasts" some lighting up the forest until it looks like it's on fire, others stumbing around in darkness, presumably looking for fireflies. A snake I've seen a couple of times here is Ruhstrat's wolf snake.

Lycodon ruhstrati
Image

And lots of sleeping japaluras. I'm going to hazard a guess that this one's ...

Japalura swinhonis?
Image

I was also happy, after months of looking, to finally come across a green tree viper here. My ego had been taking a battering from failing to find this "common" snake, so it was relief as much as anything to finally see this one sitting on a fence near some froggy pools.

Trimeresurus stejnegeri
Image
Image

A couple of weeks later I saw another in the aforementioned Yangmingshan National Park, but two is still not such a great strike rate for a snake so common.
Image
Image

As well as success on these relatively far-flung hikes, I was also able to see some good stuff in the little parks just ten minutes walk from my apartment. That was a pleasant surprise after all the bus trips and long hikes.

Protobothrops mucrosquamatus
Image
Image
Image
Image

A very nice mock viper.

Psammodynastes pulverulentus
Image
Image
Image

Another kukri snake. This one was sitting on a sparse, close-mown lawn, so I thought I'd be able to follow its progress for a while. It turned and wormed its way under what little plant cover there was and to my surprise was gone in seconds. This made me reflect on the fossorial nature of some snakes, their invisibility, and the danger of treading on them unawares.

Oligodon formosanus
Image
Image

I also came across this highlight, a red-banded snake attempting to swallow a huge spectacled toad. After an hour the snake had made no progress and I left them to it, at about 2am, knowing that - because this park is popular with older folks doing their pre-dawn physical jerks - they would probably be disturbed in less than three hours. And indeed I suspect it ended badly for them (for the toad certainly); when I passed by at 9am later that morning, no sign of snake nor toad remained, but a single battered umbrella lay at exactly the spot where the tussle had taken place ...

By the way, what's that pink lump of flesh? Eww!
Image
Image
Image

These little parks also have the usual sleeping japaluras ...

Japalura swinhonis?
Image

... and also afforded me a nice look at normally skittish grass lizard, which could be either Takydromus formosanus or Takydromus viridipunctatus, the latter the result of a 2008 splitting off from the former ...
Image

I was also able to manage a couple of hours walking on the well-known Baling Road near the northern end of the Central Mountains during a cross-country drive. Only two snakes, but they were new ones for me. First, a gorgeous bamboo rat snake.

Oreocryptophis porphyracea
Image
Image

And a very happy find, a chunky hundred pacer, slowly working its way up the road. This was really close to some major construction work, complete with equipment, huts and piles of material, so I had a bit of a dilemma. I know that, traditionally, it's a totemic species for the local people, but to me it also looked like a big target for any passing drivers, either for squashing or poaching. I also worried it might seek shelter in one of the piles of equipment, leading to a possible unhappy encounter in the morning. I decided to wrestle it up and across the road a little ways; by far the heaviest snake I've handled, but also quite docile - it didn't attempt to strike at any point. A beautiful animal.

Deinagkistrodon acutus
Image
Image
Image

Finally, a spot near Xindian, to the south of Taipei, which I frequent mainly for frogs. After months of looking I was delighted to see a many-banded krait, a snake I'd abjectly failed to spot until that point - yet another of those "common" species that taunt me by their absence. And after this I saw another one just a few minutes later, right before a bunch of yahoos and their screaming girlfriends came along the path to scare me off with their high-decibel courtship rituals. (By the way, in the second pic the snail might suggest the krait is on the small side, but no ... it's actually an enormous snail.)

Bungarus multicinctus
Image
Image
Image

Finally a couple of road casualties. Any ideas? The tail marking on the first bring the Taiwan beauty snake to mind, which would have been nice to find alive. The second I'm not sure about; a juvenile of some sort, I suppose.

Image

Image

Thanks for looking!
User avatar
Jeroen Speybroeck
Posts: 826
Joined: June 29th, 2011, 1:56 am
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Re: Taiwan reptiles from the first half of 2016

Post by Jeroen Speybroeck »

So I guess I'll be first again :D to applaud this diverse and attractive collection of species. I'd say Deinagkistrodon has to be on any herper's bucket list, and I can never see enough pics of Trimeresurus!
User avatar
numpty
Posts: 80
Joined: September 26th, 2012, 6:45 am
Location: Taiwan

Re: Taiwan reptiles from the first half of 2016

Post by numpty »

Thanks! Agreed ... I never tire of seeing Trimeresurus either. Ditto for Rhacophorus, re. the other post ... and this year has certainly turned up way more of the latter than the former.
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Re: Taiwan reptiles from the first half of 2016

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

You find the fattest Hundred-Pacer ever, but almost strike out on dirt-common stuff like bamboo vipers and kraits. I'd gladly trade with you any day of the week :-)

Thanks, again, for a great post!
Jimi
Posts: 1955
Joined: December 3rd, 2010, 12:06 pm

Re: Taiwan reptiles from the first half of 2016

Post by Jimi »

I'd say Deinagkistrodon has to be on any herper's bucket list, and I can never see enough pics of Trimeresurus!
Hear hear. I hope you get a lot more stejnegeri to show us. And some Ovophis for grins! No pressure, I hear those are super hard...

I've heard the former is often a pretty mellow animal. Interesting to get your encounter story. I have zero experience with them.

After some of Jerry Lin's Taiwan posts here I looked into the island a little bit. Fascinating geography, neat climate, intense history, tempting cuisine. It has now made my lifetime travel agenda.

thanks
User avatar
Jeroen Speybroeck
Posts: 826
Joined: June 29th, 2011, 1:56 am
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Re: Taiwan reptiles from the first half of 2016

Post by Jeroen Speybroeck »

Jimi wrote:
After some of Jerry Lin's Taiwan posts here I looked into the island a little bit. Fascinating geography, neat climate, intense history, tempting cuisine. It has now made my lifetime travel agenda.
Same here!
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Re: Taiwan reptiles from the first half of 2016

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:
Jimi wrote:
After some of Jerry Lin's Taiwan posts here I looked into the island a little bit. Fascinating geography, neat climate, intense history, tempting cuisine. It has now made my lifetime travel agenda.
Same here!
Let me know if you plan a visit. I might still be in Borneo, but there are tons of knowledgeable and friendly herpers in Taiwan that are always willing to help a visitor.

In the meantime, I suggest you whet your appetite with this highly entertaining, yet thoroughly informative book :-)

A Cobra Hijacked My Camera Bag! Snakes and Stories from Taiwan

Sorry for the shameless plug, but it's the best (not to mention only) book in existence that has everything you're looking for .... 8-)
Post Reply