Pilbara: Boom Time
Hello All,
I was asked to post up some more pictures, so here we go.... Someone fling me some coral frags sometime. ;)
I occasionally write up trip reports from surveys/trips I've been on in some of the more remote areas in Australia. Early in the year I was doing some trapping about 5kms from Port Hedland (not exactly remote) and the diversity and abundance we got was astounding. Certainly a result of the rain and recent great conditions. It's a marathon thread and there are more pics of each species if you click the flickr link OR go hunt through www.pbase.com/nephrurus
Cheers!
-------------------------------------------------------------
G'day all,
For those of you that haven't seen them already (i've had them online for a while) I'm going to belatedly post up some images of the critters that I encountered on a trapping program I participated in a few weeks ago. The area in question is part of the of the spinifex-dominated sandplain around Port Hedland. As much of the habitat around there is of similar quality, I don't mind saying that it was in nice and close to South Hedland, about 5kms away.
Initially I didn't expect to see much as usually within that proximity to townships the regular fires cook everything, but the recon survey located Mulgara burrows- a savage mammalian predator that requires a decent assemblage of food items to survive.
The presence of these burrows was a catalyst for these surveys. We were to ascertain the presence of Mulgara and the possible impacts of the development of this tiny parcel of land amongst the sandplain.
We dug in pitfall traps, set funnel traps and set Elliot traps in an attempt to locate them.
The second night! BAM! A male Brush-tailed Mulgara. Although a priority species, these guys are fairly common. Awesome creatures.
Dasycercus blythii-6768 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Dasycercus blythii-6769 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
We ended up trapping two male Mulgara and several Lesser Hairy-footed Dunnarts Sminthopsis youngsoni
sminthopsis youngsoni-6772 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
With the pits and funnels out we got a LOT of by-catch. We ended up with around 1200 records from 30pits, 30funnels and 80 elliots from 7 nights trapping. Every day, every single pit would have something in it.
Sounds unlikely? You're forgetting about one of the most amazing members of the herp assemblages up there: the frog fauna.
Recent rain had meant the frogs had come out from the ground and were breeding furiously and feeding while the sand was still moist. Frogs that had metamorphosed were dispersing.
The most common species was Cyclorana maini and the Desert Spadefoot Notaden nichollsi.
Notaden nichollsi-6368 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Notaden nichollsi-6648 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Out along the creeklines (further out of town) I found another burrower species, the GIant Burrowing Frog Cyclorana australis. This one was truly a monster. i'm guessing he'd been sitting around eating all the other frogs that had come out.
Cyclorana australis-6335 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Cyclorana australis-6330 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Back at the site the traps were yielding and we ended up with about 30 reptile species recorded on the site.
Most common were the skinks and dragons. As we were checking traps Ctenotus and Ctenophorus were always racing ahead of us through the spinifex.
Occasionally we got the Desert Rainbow Skink Carlia tricantha in the traps. I'm used to seeing this species in rocky areas in the North Kimberley so it was a bit of a spin out to get them amongst the spinifex and red sand.
Carlia tricantha-6437 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
The burrowing skinks of the genus Lerista have radiated into many different species, probably owing to their poor powers of dispersion. We got just one species on the sandplain. I initially identified this as Lerista bipes but later confirmed it as Lerista vermicularis.
Lerista vermicularis-6445 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Ctenotus skinks are another successful radiation. We recorded 7 species at this one site.
Ct. hanloni
Ctenotus hanloni-6471 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Ct. helenae. I photographed this one because it was trying to be a Lerista (check out it's front leg).
Ctenotus helenae-6474 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Ct. pantherinus.
Ctenotus pantherinus-6674 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Ct. duricola. This gave me some confusion as the very similar piankai also occurs in the area on sand. I've since been told by a herp specialists (whose area of special interest is Ctenotus) that pianki doesn't occur in the pilbara. Still a nice looking skink though.
Ctenotus duricola-6727 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Another sandplain specialist is Ctenotus rufescens. I like the wedgesnout skinks, even if they are pains to photograph.
Ctenotus rufescens-6421 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Not pictured is Ctenotus serventyi and Ctenotus saxatilis. Serventyi is on my Pbase site. Saxatilis never posed for me, the *******.
We did get one nice big fat Central Bluetongue Tiliqua multifasciata which proceeded to demonstrate how good conditions in the area were by depositing the contents of it's guts all over me. Charming.
Tiliqua multifasciata-6846 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Dragon fauna was pretty limited, with only the common stuff turning up in traps.
Ctenophorus dragons were common with the male military dragons C. isolepis in breeding colours.
Ctenophorus isolepis-6400 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Other species present were Long nosed Dragons Amphibolurus longirostris
Amphibolurus longirostris-6576 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
NW Bearded Dragons Pogona minor mitchelli
Pogona minor mitchelli-6927 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
And central netted dragons Ctenophorus nuchalis (not pictured).
I was asked to post up some more pictures, so here we go.... Someone fling me some coral frags sometime. ;)
I occasionally write up trip reports from surveys/trips I've been on in some of the more remote areas in Australia. Early in the year I was doing some trapping about 5kms from Port Hedland (not exactly remote) and the diversity and abundance we got was astounding. Certainly a result of the rain and recent great conditions. It's a marathon thread and there are more pics of each species if you click the flickr link OR go hunt through www.pbase.com/nephrurus
Cheers!
-------------------------------------------------------------
G'day all,
For those of you that haven't seen them already (i've had them online for a while) I'm going to belatedly post up some images of the critters that I encountered on a trapping program I participated in a few weeks ago. The area in question is part of the of the spinifex-dominated sandplain around Port Hedland. As much of the habitat around there is of similar quality, I don't mind saying that it was in nice and close to South Hedland, about 5kms away.
Initially I didn't expect to see much as usually within that proximity to townships the regular fires cook everything, but the recon survey located Mulgara burrows- a savage mammalian predator that requires a decent assemblage of food items to survive.
The presence of these burrows was a catalyst for these surveys. We were to ascertain the presence of Mulgara and the possible impacts of the development of this tiny parcel of land amongst the sandplain.
We dug in pitfall traps, set funnel traps and set Elliot traps in an attempt to locate them.
The second night! BAM! A male Brush-tailed Mulgara. Although a priority species, these guys are fairly common. Awesome creatures.
Dasycercus blythii-6768 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Dasycercus blythii-6769 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
We ended up trapping two male Mulgara and several Lesser Hairy-footed Dunnarts Sminthopsis youngsoni
sminthopsis youngsoni-6772 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
With the pits and funnels out we got a LOT of by-catch. We ended up with around 1200 records from 30pits, 30funnels and 80 elliots from 7 nights trapping. Every day, every single pit would have something in it.
Sounds unlikely? You're forgetting about one of the most amazing members of the herp assemblages up there: the frog fauna.
Recent rain had meant the frogs had come out from the ground and were breeding furiously and feeding while the sand was still moist. Frogs that had metamorphosed were dispersing.
The most common species was Cyclorana maini and the Desert Spadefoot Notaden nichollsi.
Notaden nichollsi-6368 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Notaden nichollsi-6648 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Out along the creeklines (further out of town) I found another burrower species, the GIant Burrowing Frog Cyclorana australis. This one was truly a monster. i'm guessing he'd been sitting around eating all the other frogs that had come out.
Cyclorana australis-6335 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Cyclorana australis-6330 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Back at the site the traps were yielding and we ended up with about 30 reptile species recorded on the site.
Most common were the skinks and dragons. As we were checking traps Ctenotus and Ctenophorus were always racing ahead of us through the spinifex.
Occasionally we got the Desert Rainbow Skink Carlia tricantha in the traps. I'm used to seeing this species in rocky areas in the North Kimberley so it was a bit of a spin out to get them amongst the spinifex and red sand.
Carlia tricantha-6437 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
The burrowing skinks of the genus Lerista have radiated into many different species, probably owing to their poor powers of dispersion. We got just one species on the sandplain. I initially identified this as Lerista bipes but later confirmed it as Lerista vermicularis.
Lerista vermicularis-6445 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Ctenotus skinks are another successful radiation. We recorded 7 species at this one site.
Ct. hanloni
Ctenotus hanloni-6471 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Ct. helenae. I photographed this one because it was trying to be a Lerista (check out it's front leg).
Ctenotus helenae-6474 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Ct. pantherinus.
Ctenotus pantherinus-6674 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Ct. duricola. This gave me some confusion as the very similar piankai also occurs in the area on sand. I've since been told by a herp specialists (whose area of special interest is Ctenotus) that pianki doesn't occur in the pilbara. Still a nice looking skink though.
Ctenotus duricola-6727 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Another sandplain specialist is Ctenotus rufescens. I like the wedgesnout skinks, even if they are pains to photograph.
Ctenotus rufescens-6421 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Not pictured is Ctenotus serventyi and Ctenotus saxatilis. Serventyi is on my Pbase site. Saxatilis never posed for me, the *******.
We did get one nice big fat Central Bluetongue Tiliqua multifasciata which proceeded to demonstrate how good conditions in the area were by depositing the contents of it's guts all over me. Charming.
Tiliqua multifasciata-6846 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Dragon fauna was pretty limited, with only the common stuff turning up in traps.
Ctenophorus dragons were common with the male military dragons C. isolepis in breeding colours.
Ctenophorus isolepis-6400 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
Other species present were Long nosed Dragons Amphibolurus longirostris
Amphibolurus longirostris-6576 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
NW Bearded Dragons Pogona minor mitchelli
Pogona minor mitchelli-6927 by Henry.Cook, on Flickr
And central netted dragons Ctenophorus nuchalis (not pictured).
