Finding snakes in the Boquete & Fortuna area's (Panama)

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Vipera1234
Posts: 16
Joined: December 29th, 2021, 2:43 am

Finding snakes in the Boquete & Fortuna area's (Panama)

Post by Vipera1234 »

Hello,

we (girlfriend and I) are currently on a trip in Panama to soak up as much nature as we can. We have seen many cool birds (some of my favourites include wintering American warblers) and often go out at night into the jungles to look for herps. However, the latter turns out to be very difficult and a bit disappointing. We have found 2 snakes thus far (two ebony keelbacks, one sleeping during the night and one moving during the day), and some nice tree frogs. No glass frogs yet, I have heard some but they have eluded me... We are now leaving an area where Bothriechis schlegelii should be living, but we found nothing apart from some wandering spiders and tarantula's which my girlfriend did NOT enjoy. I understand that it is the dry season, and that it is suboptimal for snake activity, but I feel we could be finding more! We have yet to visit the Boquete and Fortuna area's and I would be very sad to leave Panama not having seen Bothriechis schlegelii or a fer-de-lance. There are actually many more snakes I would love to see in real life, too many to list, some of which should be relatively "easy" (blunt-headed tree snake for example, but also fer-de-lance) but also difficult but VERY much wanted ones (B. nigroviridis and lateralis, both should be present in these area's because of the altitude). Does anyone have tips regarding strategy/locations/trails/time/perhaps even a guide etc for these area's? Our strategy right now mainly consists of very slow dayhikes, checking literally every mossy tree/bromeliad/cluster of vines for snakes and going out after dark with a flashlight to look for these creatures. The latter with some caution as we speak no/poor spanish and it is difficult to explain why you are walking around at night with a flashlight. In the town where we just left there were also so many dogs protecting peoples properties, but also coming onto the roads blocking them, so that limits our mobility greatly. We travel by bus, so no car to circumvent this...

This is my first journey outside of the EU and I have watched too many youtube video's of people going to Costa Rica finding 30 snakes/night, I know that those are extremely unrealistic expectations but I'm sure most would understand that you don't want to leave a central american country after 1 month of travelling, having seen only 2 snakes of the same species. As said, I wouldn't mind spending some money on a good guide even though I didn't account for this with my student budget.

I have already decide we must come back, perhaps to Costa Rica, in the wet season to try again. I will learn Spanish for that too ;).
Vipera1234
Posts: 16
Joined: December 29th, 2021, 2:43 am

Re: Finding snakes in the Boquete & Fortuna area's (Panama)

Post by Vipera1234 »

Here is an image I took of one of what I believe to be a juvenile Ebony keelback.
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