Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

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numpty
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Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by numpty »

Just thought I'd post some photos of various Taiwan herps I've seen since July this year, a followup to a couple of posts from back in June covering the first half of the year. I could have posted earlier but I was hoping for one final (snake) species to add to the list, since my species tally stalled in August. That's okay though; I've seen some nice individuals since then. I do have something of the "trainspotter" in me, but with nearly forty species on the island still for me to cross off, an incomplete list is just something I'm going to have to live with. Anyway, a few more days and I get to start the list afresh in the new year.

Snakes first. This was my first year as a "dedicated" seeker of serpents, having switched focus from amphibians. All of these were spotted in the general vicinity of Taipei, which - as one of the most densely populated cities in the world - isn't the best spot on the island for wildlife. (Most were actually spotted within an hour or so of my home.) All except one were spotted during night prowling; only in the last couple of weeks did I see a tiny mock viper during a daytime walk. I'll admit, it is a bit frustrating not to see some of the island's more common species. I mean, when I see a crested serpent-eating eagle soaring overhead I feel ... yes ... awe, but also jealousy that the b***ard is seeing more snakes than I am. Honestly, I see a blue moon once in a keelback, rather than the other way around. As for the nocturnal snakes, I see the same individuals again and again ... I've seen some of those pictured here so often I'm actually on a first-name basis with them.

Enough griping though ...

Pictures grouped starting from most commonly seen (since July) to least frequently encountered.

After seeing almost no Chinese green tree vipers for the first half of the year, I suddenly started seeing them with the arrival of cooler weather from October onwards. Not in the same numbers that more skilled herpers might, but it was enough of a surge for them to creep into the lead as my most frequently seen species. I was a bit surprised by that when I tallied up the numbers, but I'm sure it's an honour that will cause them - as a species - much pride. Pretty snakes, and while not as "entertaining" as some, their typical ambush hunter immobility makes them good models for photography. (If you're good at it, which I'm not.)

Trimeresurus stejnegeri
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And eating a frog.
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The Taiwan habu / pointed-scale pitviper, a close second behind the green pitvipers, and frankly I think these guys were cheated out of the title seeing as how much more evenly the sightings were spread over the year. Like a few other species it seems to change genus every so often; I'm going to go with Protobothrops today, but it might well be Trimeresurus. An ambush hunter, so it tends not to dance around like the Dinodons or Lycodons of the world, but sometimes it surprises you.

Protobothrops mucrosquamatus
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I've seen this individual a few times, which earned it a name. For no good reason I tend to assume masculinity when nicknaming snakes, so I thought I'd go with something more ambiguous for a change. This one's ... um ... Kratochvilova. Please note the decorative trash lending the scene some sense of scale ...
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This juvenile I found making haste across the street where I live, actually quite a crowded residential area. As luck would have it I had a little hook with me so I was able to whisk it off to the park at the end of the street.
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The next most common species for the second half of the year, the red-banded snake. I could often rely on them to put in an appearance on nights which otherwise would have been devoid of interest. They're the ones I tend to see eating giant toads, fighting each other, etc, and compared to a lot of species (yes, I'm talking about you, pitvipers) they're pretty much constantly on the move.

Dinodon rufozonatum
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And the obligatory subsection showing a selection of them eating - or attempting to eat - frogs or toads, mostly taken in or near the small park at the end of my street.
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... and tussling over food.
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Next, the greater green snake, a placid diurnal species which I only managed to see during night walks. I also saw this species dead on the roads quite a lot, clearly at times the innocent victim of people's misplaced antipathy towards the green pitviper (or just snakes in general).

Cyclophiops major
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The many-banded krait was another snake that, for me, was very unevenly distributed throughout the year. It was only in August that I saw them in any kind of numbers, and then for about a month I saw them all over the place, including the little dog-strolling park at the end of the road. These are, for me, probably the most interesting to watch as they generally don't seem to care about being observed and will just go about their business.

Bungarus multicinctus
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After the Big Five, other species were seen in much smaller numbers.

Another that started appearing with the cooler weather, slug-eating snakes.

Pareas atayal (split in 2015 from P. formosensis)
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A species that I saw several times, each time initially fooling me into thinking I was going to see something new, the mock viper. The individual below hangs out in the park at the end of my street, and its name is Stavros.

Psammodynastes pulverulentus
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Here's my one and only daytime snake this year, looking very out-of-place on a busy mountain pathway, making a failed attempt at eating a gecko among the feet of dozens of hikers. It was interesting for me to see how ordinary people reacted to this tiny individual ... although it was only about 25cm long and clearly focused on other things, most walkers (those who noticed it anyway) were scared to get within about three metres of it and leapt backwards whenever it twitched. After half an hour the snake gave up and regurgitated.
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Cat-eyed snakes, long and slender and extremely elegant. In my opinion.

Boiga kraepelini
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This juvenile looked especially pretty.
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Man, I'm running out of steam now though. Is Flickr always this slow? Anyway, wolf snakes next. I only saw a couple in the second half of the year.

Lycodon ruhstrati
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Some might think me silly for getting excited about my solitary sighting of a Brahminy blind snake, but I really enjoyed this one. It's just so ... un-snakey! This was under a rock in a little park near the end of my street, where I go to collect earthworms. A highlight for me.

Ramphotyphlops braminus
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Finally, the sexy Chinese cobra. This was on a road I regularly patrol, with familiar snakes with whom I'm on a nodding aquaintance, and I was taken aback to see this cobra, my one and only for the year. It was sitting on the edge of a ditch staring at a spot opposite - hood out - when I came across it, though it didn't seem too bothered by me. I was able to watch for ten minutes or so before it vanished while I was adjusting my camera.

But before I get into the pictures, I have to complain about the name. "Chinese cobra"? Sorry, but that's a rubbish name for a cobra. Other species get adjectives like "spectacled" or "monacled", "spitting" or "dancing" or "flying" or whatever. (Not sure about the last two ... I'll check.) Anyway, if you've seen the hood of this species, a name undoubtedly springs to mind ...

Naja atra
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Please see the following explanatory diagram to see what I mean ...
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Convincing, no? Well, okay, maybe not all the hood patterns you'll come across have such a great koala resemblance, but I think you could also say the same for, say, the spectacled cobra. Some of those "spectacles" don't look like spectacles at all!

Anyway, a few more photos ...

(One-eared) koala cobra
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Finally, on a more disappointing note for me, here's one I really would have liked to see alive. This emaciated D.I.D. specimen was over two metres long, which would have been by far my longest for the year. It was my second dead beauty snake of the year.

Orthriophis taeniurus
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Well, that was quite arduous to write and probably even worse to read. I'll post more pics of amphibians, reptiles, and perhaps a few invertebrates seen in the second half of 2016, but I'll need a little rest time before embarking on that.

Thanks for looking, and maybe even reading some of the words! You deserve a medal if you made it to the end.
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Gabri Mtnez
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by Gabri Mtnez »

The urban areas of Asia are amazing with tree vipers, cobras and kraits around. I hope to visit Hong Kong or Taiwan one day!
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Evgeny Kotelevsky
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by Evgeny Kotelevsky »

Awesome photos!
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numpty
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by numpty »

Thanks guys!

I'm ready to go into battle with Flickr once again and upload some more photos. Sundry non-snake reptiles this time. I'll try to cut down on the words this time though.

Japalura swinhonis (probably ... I have a hard time with japalura IDs)
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This is how I sleep too.
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Japalura polygonata, for sure
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I was rather lazy about photographing skinks this time around.

Sphenomorphus indicus
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And you might think there's little point in showing the elegant blue-tailed skink if you can't see the blue tail, but that's the only in-focus shot I was able to get recently ...

Plestiodon elegans
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Grass lizards.

Takydromus formosanus (probably)
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Geckos, which always seem to fox the focusing on my camera.
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Terrapins.

The annoyingly common Trachemys scripta ... released by deadbeat pet owners or misguided religious types.
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Mauremys mutica, I think, scrambling around in a drainage ditch.
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Ocadia sinensis (Or is it Mauremys? When did this change?)
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There was also a Chinese softshell turtle in the same river as the above stripe-necks, but I didn't have my camera at the time. Hard to tell if it was of natural origin or a released specimen, as they're readily available for purchase.

Thanks for looking. Frogs and sundry invertebrates next.
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Wow, what a haul! Great to see you got into snakes after all! And so many action shots - I can count on both hands the number of times I've seen wild snakes eat!

How do you tell the three Taiwanese Boigas apart? (My website snakesoftaiwan.com is still at the taxonomical status of 2011 :-))

By the way, Dinodon rufozonensis has now become Lycodon.

Cheers from Sanchih!

Hans
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numpty
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by numpty »

Hi Hans, thanks.

Um ... Taiwan now has three Boigas? That's news to me. Those crazy taxonomists, eh? Next thing you know they'll be splitting Taiwan's Pareas into three species. Oh, wait a minute, they already did that. And Dinodon rufozonatum is now a Lycodon? Ahhh, let's wait and see ... knowing how these things go it could well be Dinodon again before long. I probably should be describing my habus as Trimeresurus as well.

Cheers from Beitou!
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numpty
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by numpty »

And finally frogs and toads. I was pretty lazy about anuran photography these past few months, though I did come across some nice specimens along the way. I'll try to focus on the photos and spare the gentle reader a deluge of words.

Taiwan has two indigenous toad species. Thankfully the cane toad hasn't made inroads yet.

The spectacled toad ... I didn't see so many of these this year.

Duttaphrynus melanostictus
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And the endemic Bufo bankorensis, a big favourite with the leeches, obviously.
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Latouch's frog, the most common frog in my experience; pretty much a year-round breeder, even up here in the chilly (ha ha) north.

Hylarana latouchii
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The Fujian large-headed frog, notable for having ... you know ... large heads. And less obviously, for the males having fangs and being larger than the females.

Limnonectes fujianensis
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The olive frog, Babina adenopleura
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Two frogs that I sometimes mix up are the long-legged brown frog and Sauter's brown frog. I hope I chose the correct ID here.

Rana longicrus
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One of my favourites this year, and every year, is Swinhoe's frog, a largish torrent frog that comes in a variety of pretty dappled patterns and colours.

Odorrana swinhoana
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Damned leeches ...
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A very pretty blue one ...
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For the sake of completeness, here's an appalling pic of an East Asian bullfrog that - for a while - was hanging out at the little ornamental pond at the end of my street. I haven't seen it for a while, nor indeed any snakes, since high-powered LED lamps were installed around the park.

Hoplobatrachus rugulosus
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I saw quite a lot of brown tree frogs, a.k.a. Buerger's robust frog, these past few months. As noted in my June post, the specimens I saw in the north seemed a bit more colourful than those I'd previously seen further south. While this endemic frog is in the Rhacophoridae family, I usually see them among rocks rather than in trees.

Buergeria robusta
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Onto the tree frogs proper. First the endemic emerald green tree frog; I saw this one calling for well into November this year - later than last year - though I also noticed fewer tadpoles in 2016. It often seems to target farmers' buckets in market gardens for egg-laying, but these are vulnerable to emptying in drier months.

Rhacophorus prasinatus
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It's been a relatively warm and dry winter thus far, so I hope the endemic Taipei green tree frog and the other winter breeders aren't hit too hard this season.

Rhacophorus taipeianus
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And the smallest member of Rhacophoridae I regularly see, the endemic temple tree frog, idiosyncratic (as per the Greek epithet) due to its habit of laying eggs on land, next to puddles or pools.

Kurixalus idiootocus
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The most troubling observation for me was the continuing spread of Polypedates megacephalus, the invasive stowaway that's been spreading throughout the island for the last decade. I really noticed its presence in places I'd never seen it before ... some locations which had previously been dominated by the indigenous Polypedates braueri, and some locations which previously hadn't hosted any tree frog populations at all. The two species can be confusing to distinguish by appearance alone, but there's no mistaking the different calls. It's a pretty frog, but still ... it vexes me ...

Polypedates megacephalus
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Oi! Pervert!
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Here's one of the few Polypedates braueri I came across in the second half of the year.

Polypedates braueri
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And I'll finish off with a few invertebrates.

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Thanks for looking!
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Ribbit
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by Ribbit »

That was awesome! I have many favorites, but my favorite favorite has to be "This is how I sleep too".

You are a brave man for extolling the wonders of seeing a Brahminy Blind Snake just before tossing in a few shots of a One-eared Koala Cobra.

If you don't see any herps next year, just write something and post it. I will be eager to read it.

John
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

numpty wrote:
Um ... Taiwan now has three Boigas? That's news to me. Those crazy taxonomists, eh? Next thing you know they'll be splitting Taiwan's Pareas into three species. Oh, wait a minute, they already did that.
Sorry, I had a senior moment there. No idea what I was thinking there! Of course it's three Pareas species. The Boiga is intact :-)
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numpty
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by numpty »

Ribbit wrote:You are a brave man for extolling the wonders of seeing a Brahminy Blind Snake just before tossing in a few shots of a One-eared Koala Cobra.
Thanks! What can I say ... I like blind snakes, and I'm only moderately ashamed to admit it.
Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote: Sorry, I had a senior moment there. No idea what I was thinking there! Of course it's three Pareas species. The Boiga is intact :-)
No worries. I have more senior moments than junior ones myself nowadays. As for distinguishing among the three species, I haven't had to worry about that as the slug snakes I've seen have been solidly within the P. atayal range. I think visible characteristics include: P. formosensis - red iris and smooth scales; P. atayal - yellow iris and moderately keeled dorsals; P. komaii - yellow iris and strongly keeled dorsals. Something like that. From what I remember, there are apparently differences in dietary preference ... some preferring slugs, some snails - with related differences in jaw structure - but I can't remember which is which. (I do know that P. atayal is a slug eater though, as the first individual shown pounced on and devoured a proffered slug before I could even get my camera out.) I have the describing paper on my computer somewhere, but it's eluding me at the moment.
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Thanks a lot!
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orionmystery
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Re: Taiwan herps from the second half of 2016

Post by orionmystery »

Great post! So many awesome herps, especially love the feeding shots! I hope to herp in Taiwan some day!
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