China, Xiagu, post #2

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
Kevin Messenger
Posts: 536
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 3:00 pm
Location: Nanjing, China
Contact:

China, Xiagu, post #2

Post by Kevin Messenger »

Here’s a link to post #1 (Jiuchong, 23 to 24 May 2006):
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=228

Not like these posts needed more, but getting a 2nd chance at them I am trying to re-vamp them a little (bring something new to the table, like a dvd version of a movie). Some more pics here and there, if there were any left out. Looking back at the pics I have noticed a few that I never posted or even talked about. So, back to the post:

“So after the Jiuchong report, I realized I can actually type a lot more when I have more pics to insert, so I am pretty excited about adding to this report. Re-reading my original write ups is reminding me of the experience and all the fun I had, so I am enjoying adding to these where applicable. When I sent reports back home I left out a lot of material simply because the visual images weren’t there.

Xiagu was one of my favorite field stations, and this first trip to it (I later come back in July/Aug) was amazing. One of my all-time favorite hikes happened while I was here on this trip. So, here is the report I sent back home:

Xiagu report (she-ah-gu)

26 May
Not much on this day, this is really just a side note that I forgot to mention in the original. We had returned from Jiuchong around mid-day. Later that night I went to go see Hi Yin. She waved me into her room to show me something. She opened a card board box and inside was a gigantic flying squirrel!!

possibly Aeretes melanopterus (anyone else have some thoughts?)
Image

Image

The animal looked pretty sick. She told me (through hand gestures and broken Chinese that I could understand) that she was cleaning one of the hotel rooms and the squirrel came through the window. She thought it would be a fun pet. I tried to tell her I didn’t think that was a good idea. I wish my Chinese was better… She picked it up, and I tried to tell her to be careful. Within seconds it bit her. I was kind of worried, the strange behavior of the squirrel (the fact that it looked neurologically sick) on top of coming indoors made me think rabies was a possibility. I didn’t know how to say “rabies” in Chinese though. I told her she needed to wash the wound immediately. Afterwards I took her to my room and found a bandage in my first aid kit and put it on her with some Neosporin. She seemed appreciative. I am sure she will be fine.

27 May
At first I was not near as impressed with Xiagu as I was with Jiuchong. It was much bigger, more developed, and less personal.

Image
(Xiagu pictured from above; photo taken at a later date)

Image
(House by the river)

Image
(Mtns surrounding Xiagu)

The drive from Muyu took about 3 to 3.5 hrs. We arrived late afternoon on the 27th. Of course I wanted to unload our gear and start hiking. We started walking down the street, it took quite awhile to walk somewhere where you weren’t surrounded by buildings. I mean it was still rural, and most of these buildings were small farms and such, but still. Our “trail” was an asphalt road that eventually led down to the river. In contrast, Jiuchong, you could walk out of the “hotel” and be maybe 100 ft from the river, and walking 5 minutes north or south took you out of city limits/ village limits.

So we were walking along the road and I spot something to my right. Up on the hillside is dense vegetation, and at this part there was a small clearing and all I could see was about 2 feet of a solid black snake. There was a 6 ft wall I would have to climb first, and then the gradient on the hill is close to 60%.

Image

I thought about my options. I could make a running jump and force a hand up there and grab the 2 ft of snake I saw. The problem was, I did not know how big the snake was total and one of the few species running through my mind was the Chinese Cobra, Naja atra – I can’t remember if atra is Greek for black or not. The Black Tiger Snake’s scientific name is Notechis scutatus atra. The only other species I could think of was Ptyas mucosus. And without being 100% positive, I did not want to basically blindly grab a foreign snake I did not know for sure what it was. Next I was trying to see the head, so I could get a better idea of the species. As expected, as I approached the snake started moving. The 2 feet I was staring at was the portion of the body just anterior to the tail and it was about as thick as that 76.5” coachwhip I caught was at midbody. The snake was very large as I could easily hear it moving through the brush as I walked along trying to get ahead of the snake and see the head and to see if there was an area where the wall was lower.

As I was walking along with the sound, Linsen asked how I could see the snake through the vegetation, I told him that I couldn’t and was following the sound. He said “you have very sensitive hearing,” as he didn’t hear a thing. I thought it was crystal clear. It reminded me of a saying Dr. Heatwole’s (my advisor) wife had told me one time. We were all having dinner, going over various stories, and someone made a comment about my ability to spot baby snakes on the road going 50 mph and how my eye sight must be great (which it isn’t). Audrey made a really insightful remark, she said that she didn’t think it was so much the hardware as it was the search engine. This idea had never occurred to me before, but I certainly believe in it now. Going down the road at 50 mph, I and many of my friends just simply know what images stand out. Likewise, a snake slithering through the underbrush makes a distinctive noise, and though faint, one can easily pick it out. I could tell the snake was no longer heading parallel with me and was starting to go up the hill, if I was going to do anything I had to do it soon. I ran ahead of the snake and took a running jump for the ledge. I was able to get my chest up there but there were no holds. Linsen quickly ran up behind me and grabbed my foot to try and give me a boost. I made it up there, but walking through the brush on such a gradient I was constantly falling, I’m not a good measure of gradient, it could have been more than 70% - steep enough that every other step resulted in slipping and nearly sliding off the wall. I headed towards the snake but could not find it. It was a futile attempt I knew, but I still had to try.

Getting down was the hard part. After a lot of deliberating I just decided to jump down. My boots were wet and muddy and it would have been bad to slip from such a distance, but I got down without any problems. My hands were all cut up pretty bad from searching for a hold while trying to get up the wall. I was happy. I like getting “field wounds.” We continued down the road which went for quite a ways. We saw some non-herps:

Image

Image

Image

Image
Dobsonfly (Order Neuropterida, Family Corydalidae)

Image
(very bad pic - telephoto on full zoom and some shaky hands...)

We eventually decided to turn back. That night we stayed at a hotel in town, nowhere near as cool as the loft we were staying at in Jiuchong – this location had a TV, outlets, bathroom, etc – far too fancy.

28 May
We had breakfast with the local police officers. Most breakfasts consist of a tomato and egg soup, often time’s lettuce or cabbage is also thrown into the boiling pot. It is surprisingly good.

After breakfast I wanted to walk by the area where we saw the snake that got away. Linsen said we could take a car down to the river, but
number 1) I wanted to walk so we could see that snake, if he returned,
number 2) I don’t have the money for paying for taxis everywhere, and
number 3) it’s downhill and good exercise, so I told him we wouldn’t take a car and would walk.

We packed up all the gear. My camera bag has basically been modified into my gear bag. I have the rebel XT, and 3 primary lenses. I took out the real SLR (EOS Elan II) and its lens and replaced those slots with bags. The back compartment had the GPS and thermometer. The outside had a Nalgene attached to an external strap and my notebook attached by carabineer.

The snake had not returned… We continued down the road, after walking around curves for about 30 minutes some cops drove up in a Cherokee and asked if we wanted a lift. Since we had already passed the snake location I gave in. As we drove down to the check point station I saw a DOR in the road and yelled “snake!” repeatedly. Of course no one picked up on this and after thinking about it I said “sh-uh” (in pinyin, spelled “she” with an accent mark over the “e”) in the road. It took awhile for it to register with Linsen and we had already traveled about 5 minutes by car going 60 kph by the time Linsen said “you saw a snake back there?” – I shook my head in frustration and said “yes…” They dropped us off at the check point and I was mainly inclined to walk back up the road, but it was quite a distance now and though it was a DOR, there was still a chance a scavenger could pick it up. But I refrained. We walked further down the road to a trail and started our hike. A bit down the trail I saw a DOT (Dead On Trail) Takydromus septentrionalis lizard.

Image

We hiked until there was no more trail to hike.

Image
(typical trail in Xiagu)

We turned around and started heading back. Linsen was stopping often to look at leaves and such. My assistant was a botanist (not sure if I mentioned that before or not). He also liked to rest often. I was tired too, but I was more tired of not finding any snakes than I was physically tired, so I kept on.

I walked slower and flipped several rocks giving Linsen a chance to catch up. Eventually I just sat on a rock and waited for about 10 minutes. He eventually made it up the path. I was semi-frustrated. It was around 12pm and so of course he was ready for lunch. All I wanted to do was continue herping, but Linsen is more of my translator than he is a field herping assistant, so I want to keep him happy, so again, I gave in. While I was waiting for lunch I walked down to the riverbed and started flipping some stones. I found a bunch of newly metamorphosed Frog A’s [later identified as Amolops chunganensis].

Image

After lunch I wanted to walk back up the road so we could see that DOR. I walked along the inner side of the mountain road. One good thing about the road setup here was that before the mountain reaches the road, there is a huge curb system (obviously to keep tremendous amount of water flow off the road during a rain), but this also acted kind of like a drift fence situation. It would be a very steep climb for a snake to come down the mountain and back up to the road again – about a 2 ft high curb. As we walked I came up on a stunningly beautiful snake. Dead. It was a 42.5” Mandarin Rat snake.

I reached down to pick it up and heard Linsen saying “be careful.” For what?? It was dead:

Image

I was pissed. Another DOR Mandarin. I couldn't get over how pretty they are and how someone could look at such an animal and kill it, but the presence at least kept me hopeful that I would eventually find a live one.

This snake, however, was not the snake I had seen. The Mandarin was off of the road in the ditch. We continued upwards and I finally came across the DOR that I had seen from the car. At first glance I was ecstatic. It looked like a Bungarus multicinctus (Many-banded Krait – extremely venomous) – but it was actually a nonvenomous Lycodon ruhstrati (a species of Wolf Snake).

Image

Image

Though it wasn’t a personal lifer (it was a DOR lifer though), it was a new species that we had documented.

I was pretty tired that day. We had hiked from 9am until 4pm, minus a 1 hr lunch. As we passed locals I would say hello. Sometimes I just got blank stares, other times a smile and giggle from a girl. Linsen said they are very shy to say hello.

Again, hunting in China is reminding me of Kansas for some reason, perhaps Kansas in June or July, back when I was younger. In those days, the days prior to driving, I would walk for hours and find nearly nothing (aside from racers, garters, and ratsnakes). I have determined that road cruising by foot and on trails, rather than roads, is just simply inefficient. China has reminded me of how unsuccessful and how hard habitat herping is and how grateful I should be of the sandhills - granted finding a herp in habitat is THE most awesome way to find them, for the purposes of the job I was looking for efficiency.

Another thing that has puzzled me is the lack of lizards. Granted my mountain experience is my weakest point, but every other habitat I have hunted has lizards all over the place around midday – from anoles around the house in Charlotte, to lizards all over the sandhills, to a plethora in the Keys. So this lack of lizard life has made me wonder if it is still too early in the year.

Image
(some more scenery around Xiagu)

This awesome looking month was on my headboard that night:
Image
Image
(note the tiny blue hairs on the thorax. Also, when I touched the month on the back with a pen, it curled it's abdomen up like a scorpion tail and tried to touch the pen and made a "psssht" noise. Basically I made sure NOT to touch it with my finger as I'm sure I'd get an interesting sensation)

29 May
Mountain tactics are very different. I think the window of opportunity is far more narrower. Earlier today, Mr. Wong (one of the police men), Linsen, and I went hiking on the north side of town. In the sun it was in the mid-80s, and if you dipped around a curve and put a mountain between you and the sun, the temperature dropped drastically, to around the low-mid 70’s. So it makes me think, when that sun finally hits these spots, say around 10-10:30am, the snakes in that area will only have a few minutes to warm up before it is too hot. As opposed to a flat area, where snakes can bask a little after sunrise and slowly retreat as the sunrises further into the morning. As I think about “mountain tactics” more – I don’t recall seeing many lizards at Philmont, and aside from Alligator lizards, not many in Big Bend. Hiking in Colorado in the middle of June didn’t produce much either, but that was 1994 and I can’t remember every detail of that hike (I was 12).

Image
(river bed at Xiagu)

10:35am Finally some luck. Walking back from a trail I saw a glimpse of undulating black in the soil. I threw my gear off and ran over to the snake just to see about 3” of the tail about to disappear down a hole. A cursory glance told me it was nonvenomous, however, the dorsal pattern did look like Azemiops (Fea’s Viper) – but the context didn’t fit that species. Plus, the majority of the snake was down the hole, so I knew I could tail it for now, examine the body and if it was venomous I could fling it out into the open and then re-capture it.

Linsen started to approach me from behind and I told him to back up – I’m sure it would take a lot of explaining if he walked over and all of sudden I’m flinging a viper at him. The underbelly was also yellow which didn’t fit Azemiops either. As I pulled more of the body out the dorsal pattern had the alternating bars going from the sides to the spine, like Azemiops, and the background color was right, but between the bars it was dirty with hint of another pattern – not as clear cut as any pictures of Azemiops I’ve seen before.

Image
(picture pulling this out of a hole where Azemiops is known to inhabit, but no other species with similar markings is known to inhabit - what would be going through your mind?)

But course relying on pictures alone can be a fatal mistake. As I neared the head I drew my hand towards the base of the tail, ready to fling. The head came out and it certainly wasn’t Azemiops, but I couldn’t place it immediately. I knew it wasn’t venomous. The head reminded me of the facial pattern of African House Snakes, the dorsal pattern, like Azemiops, aside from the “dirt,” and the belly like a northern ringneck.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

The snake had no interest in biting. Around that time Mr. Wong walked up – he had hiked with us earlier hoping to find a snake but didn’t have any luck, then when he left, we found something. I showed him that the snake didn’t bite and that he could hold it if he wanted – which he did (something Linsen was afraid to do).

We headed back to the station – we moved our stuff from the hotel to the police station since all of our off-time was being spent there anyway – dropped the snake off. Later on that night I looked the snake up in my Sichuan herp book, flipping through the color plates, it was Amphiesma optatum– and this was the first record of the species in Hubei Province (prior to coming to China I had typed up info and pics on any species known to western Hubei province, and of course since A. optata wasn't known to the province, I didn't include it in my personal ID book - one reason why I was unfamiliar with the pattern when I was removing it from the hole). After dropping it off, we headed out again, this time we hiked up another trail on the north side of town. We came across a dried up rock flow – not sure the proper name of this sort of thing – kind of like the mountains of NC, where you have a huge rock face, sometimes a single rock, that when it rains is one of the primary sources of runoff, but when it’s dry it is just a sleuth of continuous rock.

Image

We started climbing and came up on a pool in the stone. At the base of the pool this frog was sitting. It was about shoulder deep, but it was a different species of frog at least!

Image
(frog B [later identified as Paa [Rana] quadranus])

Image

Image
(the exact same individual, pics taken at night instead of day)

Image
(habitat where he was found)

As impossible as China seems, especially with my assistant, I’d have to say, so far every day has revealed at least something new – whether dead or alive – and the primary purpose of this study is to catalog, so anything is successful basically, so long as we find something.

Linsen said we had hiked approximately 100 meters, vertically, from where the trail started – in about 30 - 45 minutes. At the top of the trail was a house with walls made of mud. I don’t remember if I mentioned this in my previous write-up. China has been a clash of settings. You can be in the most remote location, the most dilapidated houses, houses with walls and a roof, no door – but every house has a satellite dish, and usually the only light you seen inside is that of a TV. Much of rural China has reminded me of what I picture 1940’s – 1950’s America to be like. All food is grown on your own property, there is no such thing as trespassing – we can, and do walk wherever we care. There are no distinct boundaries. Families get water from the river and boil it. Kids play in the street rolling bicycle tires with a stick, like kids would roll a hoop with a stick. Yet every house has a TV and satellite dish. Here was this house, walls made of mud, and in the corner, held up by a pile of rocks, was a satellite dish. It is just a strange sight.

8:15pm Tonight was certainly entertaining. There was a power outage after dinner, so everyone at the station wanted to go for a walk. Where did they lead me? To a basketball court… I tried to tell them I wasn’t any good. A girl, Chi Ling, came up to me and started asking me questions. Her English was very good. She said that they wanted to play a game of 3 on 3 and wanted me to play as well and that it didn’t matter if I was any good or not. So, reluctantly, I agreed.

About that time, the local school (one of the 4 buildings bordering the court) which was about 4-5 stories tall, with a balcony at each level let out for evening recess. So each level was lined shoulder to shoulder with kids – all watching the game. Apparently it doesn’t take much to impress them. I was able to hit a fair amount of distance shots, and when I checked into the mid-court, the guy guarding me was a push over. Also, once near the basket I could basically just stand there with the ball overhead and it was far from anyone else’s reach. Every time a basket was made, all the kids clapped and cheered. The other team was very fast and nimble. After about 30 minutes I was worn out.

Afterwards the principal of the school told me that the children would love to hear me speak English. Always willing to give back I told him I’d be happy to and asked when he would like me to stop by. He said “how about now?” Figuring he was meaning tomorrow or something I was a little surprised but still had no problems. Since the city was in a blackout all the students were studying by candle light. The class had around 55 students. They asked me a few questions, had me read an excerpt out of a Chinese magazine that had English publications – the excerpt was talking about how Chinese children could learn to speak English (in preparation for the 2008 Olympics) by watching English movies, singing and listening to English songs, etc etc. The class seemed very happy I came to talk to them.

When I got back down to the court, Linsen said what I did probably had a big impact on them. I was very happy to hear this. I asked him how many westerners have come to this town. He didn’t know, but one of the officers chimed in and said “you are the first.”

30 May
By far the best day I’ve had in China so far. Today had everything. I met ZongXu today. Zong Xu, Wong Ming, Linsen, and I took a couple of motorcycles down to the base of the mountain near the river and hit a gravel road. We parked the bikes at a friend’s house and started to hike. Almost immediately Zong Xu and Ming saw a lizard. They tried to catch it but it got away. A few minutes later, another lizard. I guess they were trying to impress me, because they said they could catch it (as opposed to letting me catch it) – that lizard also got away.

We came across a construction crew that was working on clearing some rocks. We told them what we were doing and they said they had killed a snake the day before at 3pm and that it was in a bag down by the river. Zong Xu brought the bag up. I peered in to see a large black snake. I pulled it out and was basically staring at an 84” Black Racer – Ptyas mucosus:

Image

Image
(crazy similarity to a racer)

Image

[PRESENT DAY INTERJECTION: After posting these reports in 2007 on the FHF, some experts informed me that I had this species wrong – this was not Ptyas mucosus, many people suggested it was actually Zaocys dhumnades. I am in agreement, but the unique thing about my situation is that this coloration is not typical coloration of the species. Zaocys dhumnades is a country wide ranging species, even extending into the islands off the coast of China. Everywhere else this species has a distinct vertebral stripe. These individuals I encountered were solid black. For this reason, I thought all of these animals were P. mucosus, my one and only field guide, a hand drawn book, showed . I made changes from here on out in my original posts, giving this animal the proper name. To make matters even more confusing, I just recently found out that this species has been re-assigned to the genus Ptyas – not Zaocys – but as with all taxonomic changes, I am going to give it awhile to make sure it doesn’t go back to Zaocys before I go about making changes]

That was quite a disappointment. The snake that had escaped on that first day I am positive was this species. Later that first night I had looked at some pictures, the Chinese cobra is usually banded as well. We continued along the trail, Zong Xu insisted on carrying my camera bag for me. Ming also wanted to carry the tongs for me. As we walked we saw a 5-6ft Zaocysby the river below, but the drop was at least 50 ft so jumping down was out of the question. As we scrambled for a way to get down the snake took off. Oh well, still an observation. We took GPS coords and temperatures and went on our way.

Image
(Zong Xu and I – “Zong Shu”)

We hiked until we reached the end of the road and were about to head back. We came to a switchback that led up the mountain.

Image
(side note; this rd would be considered excellent quality for Shennongjia)

Linsen said that there was a small town at the top of the mountain where a family had a snake preserved in alcohol (for drinking) and wanted to know if I wanted to see it. It would still count as a species for locality purposes, so I told him “let’s go” (this phrase was quickly adopted by Zong Xu and Ming – later in the week if they wanted to go hunting or after sitting down for a rest, they’d get up and simply say “let’s go”). Linsen had said the town was about 13 minutes hike away but it felt like 13 miles.

Some of the scenery along the way:
Image

Image

Image
(Zong Xu and Wong Ming)

We went from broadleaf vegetation to pine trees. When we reached the top of the mountain all of the locals wanted to look at the American and play with the snake tongs.

We continued on. I was confused, I had thought the house was in the town, but I didn’t ask, I figured it was just a little ways out of the “city limits.” As we were walking along the cliff Zong Xu pointed down below to some trails and houses – I thought he was just pointing out the scenery, but he was actually pointing out where the house was. As we started heading down steeply I realized this and started thinking about how much hell it was going to be coming back up, especially on full stomachs (we were going to have lunch at the house as well). We got to the house, which was actually a relative’s of Zong Xu; his aunt. After lunch, they brought out the snake alcohol:

Image

Image

The snake was an approximately 48” Deinagkistrodon acutus; English nicknames are Chinese Moccasin, Sharp-nosed Viper, and Hundred Pace Snake; the Chinese name is Jin Wen Fu. They said they found the snake last September at 6am on the front porch. They killed the snake and put it in the alcohol (so it had been in there for about 8-9 months). Zong Xu and Ming had a glass of the alcohol. I was offered and obviously declined. They took the snake out for me to measure,

Image

Image

Image

Image
(I didn’t always measure snakes with my tongs – but they didn’t want to give me the snake, and I didn’t bring a measuring tape as this was an obvious unplanned side trip)

and before putting it back I showed them the fangs (since I don’t think they knew that fangs are in sheaths):

Image
The fangs were huge.

Afterwards, Zong Xu suggested we swim which of course I was happy to do. We started walking down the stream, jumping from rock to rock. The stream was becoming less and less like a stream and turning more into a river. As we made our way down I was wondering if Zong Xu had a particular spot in mind or what.

Image
(the stream started out like this...)

We had eventually gone so far that it seemed like he was leading us on a different path back – rather than going back the way we came. Water travels in the direction of least resistance right? So whatever way it is going is obviously going to be the fastest way down, right? Right!? The rocks were getting bigger and bolder, the gaps between the rocks were getting larger, and the water was getting faster. I was in heaven. This was incredible. The sights were spectacular.

There were some spots that we could not cross by rock jumping and had to bushwhack through the mountain side and find a way back to the river. Other times we had to nearly rock climb as we would have to find grips in the rock face to swing around to the opposite side of a rock. The next 2 – 3 hours was a combination of rock hopping, hiking, bushwhacking, and rock climbing. He and Ming were excellent rock jumpers. I am pretty good as well. Many times we would have to wait for Linsen – Linsen, who’s name means “born in the forest” – not “born by the river” was having trouble with some of the jumps.

Image

Image
(an attempt at showing the height of the fall – but it doesn’t really do it justice)

In his defense he is about the size of a Liani (Adrian’s fiancé), maybe slightly taller by an inch or two. Through the course of this trip I was taking several jumps across water which I would normally never attempt, but since this was the only way out, I had no choice. We had come across maybe 4 huge gaps, which were followed by huge falls and if you messed up it would certainly mean your life, but we saw such awesome scenery. Places you knew people never come to, simply because of the remote location.

Image
(I really love this photograph, and having Zong Xu in there for scale makes it even better in my opinion)

Image
(same pic as the previous, just from the opposite angle – also one of my favorites from China)

Image
(Linsen photographing me photographing water)

Image
(the resulting image)

Image

Image
(Wong Ming, Zong Xu, and Linsen)

There were a couple locations where we would bushwhack until we found a place where water runoff had carved a small trail back down to the river. These runoff trails were often very steep with loose rocks and there were a couple falls, slides, and falling rocks to deal with, but no one ever got hurt (by hurt I mean seriously hurt).

While bushwhacking along one trail, Zong Xu and Linsen were ahead of me and Linsen said he saw a snake. Zong Xu had the tongs and started looking where Linsen had seen it. I was looking for a way to jump down and get ahead of the snake. While peering through the brush I learned that there is a Chinese Stinging Nettle far worse than the nettle found in Kansas. Luckily the river was nearby and I thoroughly doused my arms and hands in the river.

After about an hour and half we reached a portion that wasn’t impossible, but fairly far fetched as far as rock jumping came. Zong Xu just walked in the water around it. I have no qualms with getting wet, so I followed without hesitation. Linsen and Ming were still jumping rocks. The way I figured was that it would be likely that we would come across other impossible spots, and if walking in water is more efficient, then might as well get it over with and get wet. While maneuvering down a couple of huge boulders, Zong Xu yelled sh-uh and pointed across the river. On top of one of the boulders was the vanishing body of a dark colored snake. Zong Xu and I flew down the remaining portion of the boulder, ran across the water, and searched every rock and bush nearby, but it was long gone.

Walking along, this time I was in the lead, I rounded a large boulder and saw a King Ratsnake (Elaphe carinata) bolt for the bushes – I quickly leapt on the snake and busted my knee up fairly bad in the process, BUT I had caught the snake so it was worth it.

Image
(the habitat where the king rat was found)

Image
(the bruise a few days later)

Shortly after that snake we were walking along and ahead, resting in the water was a 76” Zaocys dhumnades. Zong Xu wanted to catch it, so I let him at it. He got it with the tongs but was afraid to grab the body. He brought me the snake and I showed him how to hold it (IF you’re going to hold a nonvenomous by the head, which I prefer not to).

Image
(handing the Zaocys over to Zong Xu)

Image
(bagging the Zaocys)

We also caught another species of frog (Frog C), colloquially called “Ching Wa” (Wa means frog). [I later IDed the frog as Odorrana schmackeri]

Image

As we climbed another boulder, I spotted a Frog B in the water:

Image
Image
Got pretty wet catching this one...

So anyway, after about 3 hours total, we finally started to hear some voices where they were doing construction. We were at the base of where they were blasting rock out of the mountain side with dynamite. At the base of the blasting area I found a mating pair of Frog A’s [Amolops chunganensis].

Image

As we walked up on the construction crew from the backside of their work area they seemed pretty surprised, especially with the bags of snakes and the American. We made our way back to the main trail. We didn’t get back to the motorcycles until about 6pm. The hike that day was from 10am until 6pm – I had incurred bruises, stings, bites, scratches from thorns, tears from rocks, was wet, sweaty, and sore – it was an awesome trip! We had seen 7 snakes, 3 lizards, and 3 species of frogs.

On the bike ride up, Zong Xu leaned back and said in English “you and me are great friends!” and gave me a thumbs up. We got back to the station and Mr. Zhu (“Zh” in Chinese is pronounced “J” – so Zhu is Ju) wanted to host me for dinner. Everyone at the station seemed to like me a lot and wanted to be my friend. One police officer said he wanted to stay in communication with me, even though his English was “very poor,” as he put it.

While waiting for dinner to get prepared, Mr. Zhu wanted me to arm wrestle the biggest of the officers – one of my teammates in the basketball game. He was at least my size, maybe an inch taller. I was sure he would win. I actually ended up winning. They all said how strong I was. I remember on the trail, Ming would point at my muscle and give me a thumbs up. It was pretty funny. We had many toasts that night. I was never allowed to pour my own alcohol or beer (for them, alcohol = liquor, and beer = beer). There were about 9 of us dining that night and each one gave me a toast at one point. Oh, and toasts aren’t a “raise-your-glass-and-take-a-sip” type thing, in China a toast is a chug of said alcohol and mug. So by the end of the night, you are easily drunk. Unfortunately Zong Xu wasn’t there for dinner. I told Linsen to tell Ming that today was easily the best day I've had in China so far (and would end up being one of the best of the entire summer, I just didn’t know this of course at the time).

31 May
This morning Linsen told me that today was a holiday on the traditional Chinese calendar – 5/5, and asked if we could rest for the day… After the epic hike from the day before I actually hesitated in my answer. After about a second I said “probably.”

I was actually almost ready to sit back and lick my wounds. My legs had a built-up soreness of several days in a row now, plus my knee hurt like hell. I told him that he was perfectly welcome to sit the day out but that I would probably go out at some point during the day. Then at breakfast I tried to compromise and told him that we could sit the entire day out if we went out that night to look for Deinagkistrodon, he agreed. So far, I would not say a single night survey had been done – at least thoroughly – what I consider a night survey.

About an hour later Zong Xu and Ming show up and say “let’s go.” I just smiled and said “ok.” I told Linsen that I wasn’t going to tell them no and that if they were able to go, then I would be able to go, but that he was still welcome to stay in, but he came along.

We started heading north, when we got to the house that the people had seen a Cyclophiops majorat a few days before. They said they had caught a snake up the road about 15 minutes ago. They brought out a bag, I peered inside and there was a Taiwan beauty snake (Elaphe taeniura).

Image
Image
(a friend working on Asian ratsnake taxonomy tells me that individuals from this location are mocquardi x yunnanensis intergrades)

I had no idea what subspecies it was though. Zong Xu said he knew of a guy that found 3 different species of snakes about 20 days ago and still had them. So we headed for his place. It was easily mid-90’s in the sun, and a huge incline. I found it amazing that it seemed each day produced a tougher hike than the day before. But perhaps it was just from the pent-up soreness from the past week. I wondered how many days had to pass of intense activity, day after day, until your muscles caught up.

When we got to the guy’s place he pulled out a huge bag. Inside were 3 king rat snakes, one Zaocys, and one Taiwan beauty snake.

Image
Image

I picked up the biggest King Rat, which bit me several times. The species still had yet to live up to it’s nickname of “Stinking Goddess” – supposedly for the behavior of releasing massive musk glands when caught. I got GPS data on the locations and we headed home. Linsen promptly passed out. Zong Xu and I went to the back of the station to photograph the “Ching Wa” from the day before. While looking for a location, there was a Taiwan Beauty resting on a branch right in front of us.

Image

Image

Image

When it rains it pours... Mr. Zhu had also caught a Taiwan Beauty that day at 4:30pm in his yard, which he delivered to me.

Image

Image

After a short photo session Zong Xu wanted to go swimming, though at this point in the day, the sun was low and it was overcast, about 5pm, but I still went.

Image

Ming came along too. I jumped in and let out a “holy sh** that’s cold!” – figuring I was safe to use such words since they wouldn’t understand. Ming started laughing. I asked him if he knew the meaning of that word, he nodded and said yes.

We went walking that night after dinner, but Linsen and I were the only ones with flashlights, so our night outing consisted of maybe 30 minutes… Not quite what I had in mind. We didn’t find any signs of life aside from barking dogs.

1 June
After breakfast this morning I wanted to see if Ming could give me a ride on his bike down to the river bottom and back, just to see if there were any DORs (I keep forgetting some people receiving this aren’t herpetology related, DOR is short for Dead On Road). I told him I would pay for gas. I jumped on, he drove down to the bridge, where I had intended on turning around, but he kept going. He continued and turned down the road we had gone down on the 30th, he parked at the same place as we had that day.
He pulled out 2 water bottles from the back of his bike and said “let’s go.” I just smiled and followed, who am I to argue with someone who wants to go snake hunting? He insisted on carrying my backpack/camera bag. Linsen stayed back at the station, so I was on my own as far as communicating went.

It was another hot day – but I noticed my legs were no longer sore! We walked to where we had seen the dead Zaocys the other day and turned around. A couple of guys on motorcycles passed us.

About a minute later, one of the guys was yelling “she” and looking down the embankment by the river. I took off running and started scanning the ground. I saw a glimpse of the body, the distinctive “gorgeous Florida King” look. I had to jump down a semi-good distance to get ahead of the snake, so I grabbed the ledge and jumped down; the snake quickly turned 90º and headed for the water. I caught him fairly easily. The cut I suffered from the rocks on the jump down hurt a lot more than the 6-7 times he lashed into me – though of any snake bite, I would have to say he did hurt a bit. He was 78.5 inches (213 cm) with the build of a bullsnake, a very fun catch.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
(note the eliptical pupil. The species also hisses kind of like Pituophis, but not quite as "skilled" - I'm sure it's just a matter of time before it's removed from Elaphe)

On the way back to town we ran into Zong Xu on his bike, looking for us, he had just captured a Taiwan Beauty about 5 minutes before. He took us to the location for GPS data and temperatures and to photograph habitat.

Image

Image

Crossing the same path a few minutes after that was this little guy that I was hoping to catch (Cyclophiops major):

Image

When we got back to the station I offered Ming some money for the gas, he waved no and said “friend.” Everyone has been awesome here.

I showed all the officers the king rat Ming and I found; everyone wanted to get their picture with it:

Image
(Wong Ming with kingy)

Image
(Linsen - pronounced "Lin Sun" - with the king rat; this is the 1st snake he's ever held!)

2 June
The last day in Xiagu. The next day was calling for rain. The entire day was overcast and most of the day was spent gathering data on our plethora of snakes, releasing snakes, and photographing snakes. I hadn’t gotten any Zaocys pictures yet, so we took him out too.

Image

Image

Image

Image
(I love this shot, but it is hard to appreciate small like this, when blown up, it is really awesome)

Basically our only outing that day was the hike out to release and photograph the snakes.

Image
(on our way to release the snakes)

Image
(releasing one of the beauties)

Image

Image
(Linsen with the Zaocys)

Image
(Wong Ming with the Zaocys - what I like most about this pic is the officer in the background - his confused look with my camera)

Image
(random pic)

Later that night one of the locals came driving up, saying he just caught a snake – it was captured at 9:11pm crossing the “main street” of Xiagu.

Image
A sub-adult Dinodon rufozonatum– everything I have read doesn’t mention anything about the species being rear ranged, but I wonder. The snake has elliptical pupils, a distinctly triangular head and gives quite a bite for the size – but I haven’t had any reactions yet, and no books make comments on it. The name Dinodon does after all mean “terrible tooth.”

After that I asked Ming if we could take his bike real quick and cruise the road one time. He was game. Zong Xu followed behind us on his bike. No luck. But when we pulled up to the station Zong Xu said a friend of his had some snakes he found a while back that he preserved and wanted to know if I wanted to look at them. He said he had a baby “jin wen fu” – aka, Deinagkistrodon, so I jumped on his bike and he took me to his place. He started pulling out jars of preserved snakes (all in drinking alcohol, for the purpose of consumption). He pulled out a couple at a time and set them on the desk, all I could say was “holy sh**” again – but not at the Deinagkistrodon, I could care less about that one, but at this little snake:

Image

Image

Azemiops feae– Fea’s Viper; THE snake in China I want to find. I had a million questions for him, but it was extremely hard to get the idea across without Linsen. We headed back to the station to have Linsen translate. Apparently he found the snake at 10:30am in April of 2002. I had him look through one of the Chinese ID books, he pointed to several species, saying he had seen in the past couple of days, he pointed to Rhabdophis tigrinus lateralis, Pseudoxenodon macrops, and back at his house he also had a preserved Sibynophis chinensis.

Image

If it wasn’t raining on the 3rd we were going to stay another day and check out the location, so we could at least get locality data – but the next day it was raining. I’m hoping as things cool down in the higher elevations, I can hit up some of the lower elevation stations again, especially Xiagu.

I did not think I would grow so attached to fellows I could basically barely understand. But come time for goodbye’s they were quick and sad. Thinking we were staying the day, I slept in for awhile until Linsen came in the room and said that it was raining and that the taxi was there to pick us up. So I basically piled everything together and walking out to the van Ming said “man zo.” Linsen said it meant “I will miss you.” I replied the same and was sad I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Zong Xu. All the more reason to return to Xiagu before leaving China.

Well that is about it for now. I am in Muyu right now. It is raining today, and raining tomorrow, and the day after that Linsen and I are heading out to the last lower elevation field station, Dongxi. Rather than typing the coordinates, in a follow-up email I will just attach the google earth file, there are too many points. We found 9 species of snakes in Xiagu, 11 if you count the Azemiops and Sibynophis that Zong Xu’s friend found, but since I don’t have locality data on them, I can’t count them.

Hope everyone is doing well,
Kevin”

A link to post #3: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=749
User avatar
Ryan Thies
Posts: 133
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:54 am
Location: St. Louis, MO
Contact:

Re: China, Xiagu, post #2

Post by Ryan Thies »

Outstanding post! It was a long read, but more than worth it. You guys found a lot of very cool herps. I bet you remember those outings for the rest of your life. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Ryan
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: China, Xiagu, post #2

Post by Tim Borski »

Bravo Kevin. And thankyou for a wildly interesting few days! I loved the narrative as much as the photos. Outstanding.
Tim
User avatar
Viridovipera
Posts: 339
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:40 pm

Re: China, Xiagu, post #2

Post by Viridovipera »

Wow man, that was great. It was long, but it was detailed. Most importantly, it gives a sense of exactly how hard herping in areas that you know so little about can be. It really reminded me of my days herping in Vietnam. You've got some help from the locals, but each day usually ends with one new species, and a handful of dead ones brought by helpful villagers or found pickled in alcohol. To me, seeing the explanations, the trails and tribulations, does much more justice than some photos with one sentence captions. Thanks for taking the time to give us the full report and really show just how much work goes in to finding those species. Sounds like a great trip. :beer:

-Alex
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Re: China, Xiagu, post #2

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Colossally epic, or epically colossal? Whatever the case, thanks again for these! The scenery shots are fantastic (very much like Taiwan, actually), and so are the snakes. By the way, "Taiwan Beauty Snakes" (Orthriophis taeniurus friesi) are endemic to Taiwan. Anything that resembles a TBS but comes from Mainland China is a different subspecies - in your case, most likely either O. t. taeniurus or O. t. mocquardi or O.t. yunnanensis.

Keep 'em coming!
User avatar
Kevin Messenger
Posts: 536
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 3:00 pm
Location: Nanjing, China
Contact:

Re: China, Xiagu, post #2

Post by Kevin Messenger »

ah yeah, sorry, too used to the common name. Growing up a "taiwan beauty" was Elaphe taeniura for me. Yeah, nowadays there are all these other beauty snakes that I never knew the common names of. I guess I could call them "Chinese Beauty Snake" or "Common Beauty Snake"- but that just doesn't sound right. Is there a standard name for "O. taeniura?"

The ones from this region are thought to be intergrades between yunnanensis and mocquardi.

Several more to come. This one was one of my favorite trips.

Alex,
As I mentioned, Vietnam would be incredible. Keep me up to date on that and I hope you take plenty of pics. I think we've only had one or two Vietnam posts on the forum before the crash. I would love to herp either Yunnan province or Northern Vietnam.

Thanks Tim, is this your first time with this series or did you get to see it the first time through?

Tons more to come everyone.... I am re-reading each one, trying to catch errors, trying to add detail in any spots where I might have gotten lazy or slack. I am keeping all the taxonomic names as they were in 2006 though
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: China, Xiagu, post #2

Post by Tim Borski »

Kevin, I did get to see a couple of them last year. Forgot how much I liked them. (Now you've got me wondering about other great posts I'd love to revisit. But sadly, will probably never get the chance.) Tons of thanks for the time you took in re posting. :beer:
On one of the China series last year, I loved/commented on the Dragonfly eating the Cynthia moth...is that too being resurrected? 'Hope so.
Tim
User avatar
The Real Snake Man
Posts: 405
Joined: June 12th, 2010, 4:08 pm
Location: Pasadena, CA or Mission, TX

Re: China, Xiagu, post #2

Post by The Real Snake Man »

Wow, great post. It's too bad that many of the snakes were dead. That Fea's viper is a heartbreaker. :cry:
User avatar
Kevin Messenger
Posts: 536
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 3:00 pm
Location: Nanjing, China
Contact:

Re: China, Xiagu, post #2

Post by Kevin Messenger »

lol, wow Tim. Yes that one will be re-posted, but I am trying to let these out once per week. At that rate, we got around 27 more weeks to go roughly before that post is posted (it is post #28 or 29).

Yeah, it did suck having all the dead animals (for herping sake), but for the project it at least allowed me to verify more species and to get specimens without having to sacrifice live animals, so that part I was thankful about. For the rest of the project for example I never saw another Lycodon ruhstrati, so without that DOR that species would never have been recorded. The dead Fea's, and the story along with it really pissed me off, made me super excited, I was still in awe at imagining being in that guys footsteps and how walking around and finding an Azemiops was even a possibility.
Post Reply