Malaysia 2016 - Picture heavy

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Dwarfmonitors
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Joined: May 10th, 2016, 1:31 am
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Malaysia 2016 - Picture heavy

Post by Dwarfmonitors »

A couple of months ago me and two herper friends was waiting at the airport for our flight to Amsterdam, and then to Guangzhou, and then to Kuala Lumpur och then to Langkawi. Haha. A long way to travel.
We arrived in Langkawi in at the 26th of april. It appeared to be a dry season, but that was not going to stop us to find som animals!

LANGKAWI

When we arrived we didn't have any where to stay. So the first day we found a hostel and a rental car.
The view from our hostel, first morning waking up in paradise.
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First day! Time for some herping, it was dry and super hot. We found an almost dry river bed up Gunung Mat Cinchang. So we started walking!
Water break.
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Dried out waterfall.
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Our first herp, besides a couple of skinks.
Bufo asper
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It was kind of hard to find anything a day, due to the lack of rain. So at night we was road hunting up at Gunung Raya.
First herp for the night!
Cyrtodactylus quadrivirgatus
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First snake!
Elaphe flavolineata
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Next day we went to the mangrove. To find som Mangrove pit vipers, Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus.
We found three in total, two females and on male.
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After the mangrove and some amazing vipers our plan was to go back to our new guesthouse and get some food, but we took a stop at an abandoned snake park. Great idea!
We found this little critter in a well with some water left in it.
Naja kaouthia
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Night again! We took one more chance at the river bed at Gunung Mat Cinchang.
Varanus salvator
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Rana raniceps
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Bufo melanostictus
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After Gunung Mat Cinchang and a nice night, we took our car to Gunung Raya again. With some nice finds!
Gekko gecko
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Cyrtodactylus pulchellus
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Bungarus candidus
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Back at the guesthouse. Took some pictures of the house geckos while we ended a good day with some beers.
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Next day we started herping later at the afternoon, at day we went up to the sky bridge and checked it out. Our hopes was that you could walk out in to the forest from the sky bridge and look for Trimeresurus venustus. Well, you can't. Bummer!
After the sky bridge we ate at the base of Gunung Mat Cinchang and after that, we went up our standard route again!
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Rana glandulosa?
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Species?
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Limnonectes blythii?
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Leptobrachium smithi
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Species?
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Polypedates leucomystax
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Species?
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Fejervarya limnocharis
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Rana erythraea
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After a great night with a lot of amphibians, we went to Gunung Raya once more! We wanted to find some Trimeresurus fucatus.
Juvenile Cyrtodactylus pulchellus
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Ahaetulla prasina
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When we got back to the guesthouse there was a lot of noise. We guessed it was the owners birds. It wasn't.
These fellows where mating in the owners little concrete pond.
Kaloula pulchra
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PENANG

After that we took the boat to Penang. Our plan was to visit the Snake temple and do some herping. To bad that Penang is basically one big city with close to zero wildlife...
After a long day/night in this town, without anywhere to sleep because every hostel and hotell was full, we slept in the car outside the temple.
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Tropidolaemus wagleri in the temple.
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BUKIT LARUT

After one rather disappointing day in Penang we took our car and drove to Bukit Larut. Our next stop! We stayed in a small town almost at the base of Bukit Larut, Taiping. This was not a town used to turists! Haha. I have pretty much tattoos, long hair and a big ass ring in my nose. Ohhh, they stared, A LOT. Oh well. Bukit Larut was amazing.

First night in the djungel in Bukit Larut.
Ptyas fusca
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Another one of these amazing frogs. Leptobrachium smithi
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Next day!
Patric in our hotel room. Checking his camera gear.
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View over Taiping.
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We went up to Bukit Larut this day, didn't find much during the day. But it was nice.
Taking some photos of Draco sp.
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Habitat.
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Night again. Always better for reptiles and amphibians.
Gonocephalus grandis
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Ansonia malayana
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Juvenile Boiga dendrophila melanota
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Species?
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CAMEROON HIGHLANDS

After Bukit Larut and Taiping, we went to Cameroon Highlands! In the search for Trimeresurus nebularis, one of my dream species to see in the wild.
The first day we went up a hill right before sunset. To see the sunset from the top and then walk down when it was dark.
View.
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First snake in Cameroon. I must say, I really like the slug eaters. They are so rad!
Juvenile Asthenodipsas lasgalenensis
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Adult Asthenodipsas lasgalenensis
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Next day we went up to the mossy forest. What a big difference from anything I have seen before. Super cool!
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First animal for the day, small agamid on 2000m hight. Species?
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Also found this little gecko. I have no clue what species it is. Maybe a Lepidodactylus?
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Agamid.
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Macrocalamus tweediei
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Lygosoma quadrupes
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After some heavy rainfall that almost destroyed our cameras and everything else, we finally found it! Trimeresurus nebularis!
I only have this half decent picture. My camera went nuts. So it deleted 40 pics of nebularis, as well with some pics from Bukit Larut. Some pictures of a turtle that could have been Heosemys spinosa. Not sure.
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BUKIT FRASER

We was planing on staying in Cameroon til we hade to go to the airport. But, after we found T. nebularis, we decided to take the car to Bukit Fraser and spend our last day there. Maybe one more shot at finding T. fucatus.
We left Cameroon pretty early in the morning. To make as much as possible out of the day. We arrived in Bukit Fraser around 12.00 in the day. We went to get something to eat, and the we went out in the djungel.
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We found an Rhabdophis sp. but it sliped away. No pictures.
We walked the same trail at night.
Trimeresurus fucatus
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Xenophrys longipes
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After the trail, we where pretty tired. Two weeks in the djungel looking for reptiles and living the dream takes a lot of power, haha. We decided to take a last trip with the car, do some road hunting.
And we got something great, this one! (Sorry for the bad pic. Quick as lightning and we where tired, so we kept our distance and just enjoyed the sight. It was BIG as well, 150-160cm.)
Calliophis bivirgata flaviceps
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We also found this little Cyrtodactylus sp.
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I hope you enjoyed it! It was an amazing trip and I can't wait til I'm in the djungel again. Soon!
A last picture of me and our first T. nebularis. We actually found two.
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Jeroen Speybroeck
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Re: Malaysia 2016 - Picture heavy

Post by Jeroen Speybroeck »

Aaah... this takes me back to last year... Good stuff!

If you are interested in naming the frogs and lizards, my report from last year might help, but I'll list them here too.
http://www.hylawerkgroep.be/jeroen/index.php?id=77
The report might help you name other stuff you saw but didn't show here, who knows.

(Bufo asper => Phrynoidis aspera)
(Elaphe flavolineata => Coelognathus flavolineatus)
(Rana raniceps => Chalcorana labialis (I think...))
(Bufo melanostictus => Duttaphrynus melanostrictus)
Cyrtodactylus pulchellus => Cyrtodactylus macrotuberculatus
(Rana glandulosa? => think so, yes (Hylarana too, though))
Species? (frog) => Limnonectes, maybe khasianus
Limnonectes blythii? => seems like it, yes
Species? (skink) => ?Eutropis multifasciata?
Species? (frog) => could be blythii too
(Rana erythraea => Hylarana erythraea)
Ansonia malayana => Ingerophrynus parvus
Species? (frog) => Amolops larutensis
small agamid on 2000m hight. Species? => Gonocephalus robinsonii
Maybe a Lepidodactylus? => Hemiphyllodactylus titiwangsaensis, I think
Agamid. => Gonocephalus robinsonii
this little Cyrtodactylus sp. => Cyrtodactylus quadrivirgatus
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Ameron
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Joined: June 10th, 2010, 5:57 pm
Location: Portland/Vancouver

Another Hooray

Post by Ameron »

Wow, another stunning post! Great job, guys.

The Malaysian Blue Coral is almost dream-like, and definitely rivals the Rainbow Boas as one of the most beautiful snakes.

Trip of a lifetime - and thanks for sharing it with text & photos so that I and others can also enjoy the trip vicariously.
NACairns
Posts: 372
Joined: December 30th, 2013, 7:27 am

Re: Malaysia 2016 - Picture heavy

Post by NACairns »

Great post, great photography. That is an amazing amount of diversity to absorb in a quick post, that you very much for sharing.
Best,
Nick
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LouB747
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Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:50 am
Location: Huntington Beach, CA

Re: Malaysia 2016 - Picture heavy

Post by LouB747 »

Good stuff. Blue corals are very special to me. Nice you got to see a big one.
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Jeroen Speybroeck
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Joined: June 29th, 2011, 1:56 am
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Re: Malaysia 2016 - Picture heavy

Post by Jeroen Speybroeck »

Two thoughts:
* The fact that 'southern' blue corals are more blue seems to hold.
* Travelling at about the same time of the year, we also failed to find the supposedly abundant fucatus, let alone venustus, on Langkawi. Dry, dry, dry.
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Martti Niskanen
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Joined: June 11th, 2010, 11:19 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Malaysia 2016 - Picture heavy

Post by Martti Niskanen »

A very cool post, and big congrats on finding your target species.
Dwarfmonitors
Posts: 3
Joined: May 10th, 2016, 1:31 am
Location: Sweden

Re: Malaysia 2016 - Picture heavy

Post by Dwarfmonitors »

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:Aaah... this takes me back to last year... Good stuff!

If you are interested in naming the frogs and lizards, my report from last year might help, but I'll list them here too.
http://www.hylawerkgroep.be/jeroen/index.php?id=77
The report might help you name other stuff you saw but didn't show here, who knows.

(Bufo asper => Phrynoidis aspera)
(Elaphe flavolineata => Coelognathus flavolineatus)
(Rana raniceps => Chalcorana labialis (I think...))
(Bufo melanostictus => Duttaphrynus melanostrictus)
Cyrtodactylus pulchellus => Cyrtodactylus macrotuberculatus
(Rana glandulosa? => think so, yes (Hylarana too, though))
Species? (frog) => Limnonectes, maybe khasianus
Limnonectes blythii? => seems like it, yes
Species? (skink) => ?Eutropis multifasciata?
Species? (frog) => could be blythii too
(Rana erythraea => Hylarana erythraea)
Ansonia malayana => Ingerophrynus parvus
Species? (frog) => Amolops larutensis
small agamid on 2000m hight. Species? => Gonocephalus robinsonii
Maybe a Lepidodactylus? => Hemiphyllodactylus titiwangsaensis, I think
Agamid. => Gonocephalus robinsonii
this little Cyrtodactylus sp. => Cyrtodactylus quadrivirgatus
Great, thank you! That helped a lot!
There is so many changes in taxa, so it's pretty hard to keep up with it!
Dwarfmonitors
Posts: 3
Joined: May 10th, 2016, 1:31 am
Location: Sweden

Re: Malaysia 2016 - Picture heavy

Post by Dwarfmonitors »

Thank you all! It was an amazing experience. Hopefully we will travel there a couple more times. I want to see all of the Trimeresurus of Malaysia.
Really glad you liked it!
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Gabri Mtnez
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Joined: December 16th, 2014, 4:37 am
Location: Madrid
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Re: Malaysia 2016 - Picture heavy

Post by Gabri Mtnez »

"We found this little critter in a well with some water left in it. Naja kaouthia"

Wow! We were in that abandoned snake park and we were looking for wells but didn´t find any. Just very good metalic things for flipping with rats, mice and geckos under them. We found a big DOR kaouthia few kms to that park and cobras love the human buildings so I was sure that cobras could be there, but we didn´t find them. So congrats!! If I return there I will search for that well !! :D
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