Herping with baby Sophia
Posted: March 11th, 2019, 9:00 am
Spending time in the outdoors and with herps from a young age is a family tradition for me.
I took baby Sophia out on a couple of short herping outings during the first few weeks of her life, but she wasn't really old enough to take in anything (and slept through most of the good finds). Her first confirmed picture with a herp was....not much to brag about.
The next few months were busy, but now months 4-6 of her life have been great.
Her first participatory herping outing ever was at a local park. Together we flipped a Common Dotted Supple Skink, a Kushmore's House Gecko, and a Brahminy Blind Snake.
A month later we went out for my birthday and took our first real outing to a local forest. Birthday surprise, ran into some snake charmers on the way there!
We started off walking a few kilometers through the forest. Saw two jackals and three owls, which is interesting because I've done this hike dozens of times and never seen this owl species here or anywhere else in the city (either Jungle Owlet Glaucidium radiatum or Asian Barred Owlet Glaucidium cuculoides?)
We got to the area I like to flip and I was not disappointed. Almost immediately I turned up a couple Indian Wolf Snakes (Lycodon aulicus). Her first snake with sight!
Next we got a Common Dotted Supple Skink (Lygosoma punctata) and I figured it was time for her to get to hold a herp for the first time. My wife was afraid that she was going to stick it in her mouth! Sophia definitely enjoyed it.
Over the rest of the day we proceeded to flip lots of centipedes, scorpions, geckos, skinks, and a couple more Indian Wolf Snakes. Sophia seemed to be having a good time.
Then we got the highlight of the day - a young Russell's Viper! Rosey said, "You're not taking her anywhere near that thing." Oh well, not everything is selfie material.
Hiking back out we ran into a small group of Nilgai. Great way to cap off a nice day.
Thanks for taking a look! Part 2 will follow later where we actually got to take her through the jungle and she holds her first snake!
I took baby Sophia out on a couple of short herping outings during the first few weeks of her life, but she wasn't really old enough to take in anything (and slept through most of the good finds). Her first confirmed picture with a herp was....not much to brag about.
The next few months were busy, but now months 4-6 of her life have been great.
Her first participatory herping outing ever was at a local park. Together we flipped a Common Dotted Supple Skink, a Kushmore's House Gecko, and a Brahminy Blind Snake.
A month later we went out for my birthday and took our first real outing to a local forest. Birthday surprise, ran into some snake charmers on the way there!
We started off walking a few kilometers through the forest. Saw two jackals and three owls, which is interesting because I've done this hike dozens of times and never seen this owl species here or anywhere else in the city (either Jungle Owlet Glaucidium radiatum or Asian Barred Owlet Glaucidium cuculoides?)
We got to the area I like to flip and I was not disappointed. Almost immediately I turned up a couple Indian Wolf Snakes (Lycodon aulicus). Her first snake with sight!
Next we got a Common Dotted Supple Skink (Lygosoma punctata) and I figured it was time for her to get to hold a herp for the first time. My wife was afraid that she was going to stick it in her mouth! Sophia definitely enjoyed it.
Over the rest of the day we proceeded to flip lots of centipedes, scorpions, geckos, skinks, and a couple more Indian Wolf Snakes. Sophia seemed to be having a good time.
Then we got the highlight of the day - a young Russell's Viper! Rosey said, "You're not taking her anywhere near that thing." Oh well, not everything is selfie material.
Hiking back out we ran into a small group of Nilgai. Great way to cap off a nice day.
Thanks for taking a look! Part 2 will follow later where we actually got to take her through the jungle and she holds her first snake!