From Chillagoe we headed to Undara Volcanic National Park. Undara wasn’t a planned stop, but we were in the area and I’d heard good things about Undara. I was surprised to find that the only way you can access the national park is to go on a (relatively expensive) tour with the Undara Experience people. We didn’t want to pay for a tour, so we just walked around the campground. We headed up to a rocky outcrop, on which we saw a number of Carlia mundivensis, and what I think is another Carlia rococo (which I thought I had photographed, but I can’t find the pic).

Carlia mundivensis.

Carlia mundivensis habitat.

Carlia mundivensis.

Some species of Carlia have lobules in their ear openings. These lobules can often be used to identify the species. I took a picture of the lobules of the Carlia mundivensis to help me ID. I’m not certain, but I think I’ve found the inspiration for the Sarlaac in Return of the Jedi.

Carlia mundivensis ear lobules

The Sarlaac from Return of the Jedi

It was very hot, so we headed back down to the little shop to get something cold (side note: on this trip I became obsessed with honeycomb MAXIBONs, but only found them at one servo. At Undara I had to make do with a MAXIBON Cookie). I was talking to the girl behind the counter (actually, I was trying to chat her up) and she told me that pretty much every night on the bat cave tour they see snakes at the cave entrance trying to catch and eat exiting bats. Righto, stuff the expense, sign me up. So we found ourselves on a bus with a guide heading towards the Bat Cave. It was our guide’s last night. He told us we could do whatever we wanted, because he couldn’t get fired. On the drive out we saw some antilopine wallaroos, a new species for me.

Antilopine wallaroo (Macropus antilopinus).

The tour included a sunset cheese and wine supper on top of a rocky hill. Not being particularly fond of cheese, wine or sunsets, I hunted for reptiles instead. I wasn’t disappointed. I found a termite colony that was ‘birthing’ – winged termites were leaving the mound. Lots of Australian lizards like to eat termites, and we saw three species of skink running around stuffing their little skinky faces on termites. I only saw/photographed two of these species – I didn’t get to see the Ctenotus.

Carlia jarnoldae.

Carlia jarnoldae – female or non-breeding male.

Glaphyromorphus isolepis.

After the rest of the group had seen the wussy sunset and eaten their stinky cheese and consumed their inebriatory wine, we headed off to the bats. When we got there we saw a steady stream of bats leaving the cave. Up in a tree we saw a few brown tree snakes (Boiga irregularis). I’ve seen a fair few brown tree snakes, but only the plain brown, eastern form. Here at Undara, the brown tree snakes are the much more spectacular striped form.

Brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) on vine in front of bat cave.

Brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis).

The ones in the trees lunged at passing bats a few times, but didn’t make any catches. Before too long we were being ushered away and back to the campground. That’s why I dislike organised tours – they never let you stay in one place for long enough. If I’d been able to go back their by myself I would have been happy, but the park is off-limits unless you’re with a tour. So we had to content ourselves with looking around the non-national park area near the campground. We still saw a heap of stuff, but no bats in the middle of being consumed.

Red-naped snake (Furina diadema).

Fat-tailed gecko (Diplodactylus conspicillatus) with head under tail in defensive pose.

Fat-tailed gecko (Diplodactylus conspicillatus).

Fat-tailed gecko (Diplodactylus conspicillatus) perched on a termite mound, presumably eating termites..

Box-patterned gecko (Diplodactylus steindachneri).

Cyclorana novaehollandiae.

Cyclorana novaehollandiae.

Ornate burrowing frog (Opisthodon ornatus).

Striped rocket frog (Litoria nasuta).

Apart from half-consumed bats, the one species I wanted to find here was Oedura coggeri. We walked back up to the rocky outcrop we’d explored during the day. On the way up we found (sitting in the middle of the path) our target gecko.

Oedura coggeri.

That made me happy, so we called it a night and headed back to our tents. The next day we headed towards Mt Isa, stopping to look at a dragon that had dashed off the road near Croydon.

Amphibolurus temporalis.

This entry was posted on Sunday January 18th, 2009 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Animal photos, Australian Odyssey - Nov 2008, In the field. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.