Tiger time

I’d heard that there was a healthy tiger snake (Notechis scutatus) population in the lakes around Perth. We headed to a nearby lake early today to try to find some tigers.

The view of Perth CBD from a local lake

A sign warning park-goers of the numerous tiger snakes to be found in the area. We found a tiger snake in the bushes behind this sign.

It was overcast for the first few hours and we saw nothing. As the sun came out, so did the reptiles. We saw eight individual tiger snakes by the end of the day (with multiple sightings of some individuals), including one that Mike nearly stood on. Unfortunately the tigers weren’t particularly keen on having their pics taken, so this is the best pic Alecia got.

A dodgy western tiger snake (Notechis scutatus) pic

We’ll definitely have another poke around a lake before we leave Perth. We also saw an Egernia luctuosa, which I think is sort of the equivalent of our east coast water skinks (Eulamprus spp.).

Egernia luctuosa

There were about a dozen motorbike frogs (Litoria moorei) hanging out in a grass tree. Those frogs are closely related to the green and golden bell frogs (Litoria aurea) found around Sydney.

Motorbike frog (Litoria moorei)

And of course we saw plenty of black swans.

A black swan (Cygnus atratus)

That night we went for a drive through some forest to try to find some critters on the road. About two minutes we found the first beast of the night. Unfortunately he didn’t look too healthy.

Roadkilled death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus)

Over the course of the rest of the night we found a few other species, but due to the cool temperatures we didn’t see much.

Marbled gecko (Christinus marmoratus)

Thick-tailed gecko (Underwoodisaurus milii)

Gehyra sp.