I’ve just returned from a trip to the Gulf of Carpentaria, north of Mount Isa. I think the highlights were the olive pythons (we found two) and Cryptoblepharus zoticus (Cryptoblepharus is my favourite skink genus), plus the bats.
Species marked with an asterisk (*) are ones which I hadn’t before seen in the wild.
Common tree snake (Dendrelaphis punctulatus)
Driving back from work last month, a colleague and I decided to drop into Eungella National Park, a few hours west of Mackay on the central Queensland coast. Eungella is a mountainous rainforest environment with a number of endemic species. We were after two in particular, a skink (Eulamprus luteilateralis - “the lute”) and a honeyeater. We had some hot info on where to find both of them, so after wending our way up the winding woad we headed straight for our target location (stopping only to look at a couple of dead snakes on the road).
We got out of the car and immediately saw a bunch of small skinks running around the place. Closer inspection revealed them to be Lampropholis adonis. While not one of our targets, this was still a new species for me. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get any decent photos and didn’t want to waste too much time on this BS (=brown skink).
Lampropholis adonis
At the end of last month a colleague and I did some poking around at Moranbah, west of Mackay. We found a bunch of stuff.
Spotted python (Antaresia maculosa)
Last month I spent a couple of days out Alpha, west of Emerald. We saw a bunch of critters. Driving out from Emerald we saw on the road what was probably a black whipsnake (Demansia vestigiata), but neither of us got a good enough look to ID it with any confidence.
Driving along the roads (both dirt and sealed), we saw lots of dragons scuttling off into the roadside vegetation. I saw one of these dragons perched on a bit of tyre in the middle of the road. As we approached in the car it deperched (is that a word?) and sought cover under the tyre. We got out to investigate and found a central netted dragon (Ctenophorous nuchalis) under the tyre. He obviously didn’t see us as a threat, and he soon came back out onto his perch.
Central netted dragon (Ctenophorus nuchalis)
Wallum frogs is the collective term applied to a suite of frog species that are found only in wallum/heath environments. These environments are characterised by vegetation such as Melaleucas, sedges and banksias. The waters in these swampy areas are tannin-stained and of a low pH due to the dissolved organic acids.
My friend Kat (of crayfish fame) is now doing a PhD looking at factors that influence the distribution of these wallum froggies. I went out with her on Friday night to have a bit of a poke around. I’d never explored any wallum country, so I was happy to see the three species that we were hoping for (plus one ubiquitous foreigner).
Crinia tinnula
The other weekend I went up to the Lamington Plateau with a friend of mine. We were hoping to find a bunch of Coeranoscincus reticulatus (after my extraordinary luck with them last time). Sadly, no coeranoscincids were to be found. But we did see a bunch of other stuff.
Saproscincus rosei
Last December I was dragged out to Cracow to help Jonno Lucas from Educational Reptile Displays with a venomous snake handling course for the Cracow Gold Mine. We stayed at the Cracow Pub, owned by Fred Brophy.
A green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) found in a post out the back of the Cracow Pub.
In January I went out to the southern Brigalow Belt twice. Once to look for pale-headed snakes (Hoplocephalus bitorquatus) and once to look for yakka skinks (Egernia rugosa). Both trips were highly successful. The yakka skink trip turned up not only the skinks, but holy cross frogs (Notaden bennetti) and a Dunmall’s snake (Furina dunmalli). Dunmall’s snakes are quite rare and hard to find. We were in the right habitat for them, but never really expected to see one. We were all blown away when we saw one crawling through a clump of grass.
Here are some photos.
Lake Broadwater, looking for pale-headed snakes
Pale-headed snake (Hoplocephalus bitorquatus). One of the few truly arboreal elapids we have here in Australia. They like to shelter in tree hollows and under exfoliating bark on trees along waterways. They generally eat lizards and frogs, but are capable of delivering a serious bite to a human.
The musings of Stewart Macdonald, an Australian herpetologist