Etienne Littlefair: herping

Possibly initially due to the late Steve Irwin and his TV wildlife series, Queensland, Australia is one of those places that I and I suspect most wildlife lovers of my generation (in the UK certainly) dream of reaching. That dream recently became a reality for me as I prepare to move to the Cairns area where I will be undertaking a masters degree in natural resource management with James Cook University. Earlier this month I had the opportunity to visit the area in order to establish my base before the big move in December. As a side to the admin, I spent a little time tracking down a lot of wildlife and achieved some great (IMHO) images. I also thoroughly enjoyed catching up with and the hospitality of Sam Davies and his partner Jasmin, Sam is a former class mate from Bangor University now living in Port Douglas, a very nice coincidence.

First up, Sam, Chris O'Dowd of Wet Tropics Education (http://www.wettropicseducation.com/) and I set out with a mission to find and photograph Coastal Taipan. The trip was a success and the image I produced was included in an article in the Port Douglas weekly newspaper.

With taipan in the bag, and after running some chores around the Cairns area, I moved inland and upwards into the Atherton tablelands in order to track down some of the areas renowned birdlife.

A female Victoria's riflebird peers inquisitively at the camera. This species is one of the birds of paradise, an exquisite family of birds numbering around 40 species in total, mostly occurring on the island of New Guinea.

Above is the male Victoria's riflebird, his iridescent plumage details revealed in the morning light. During October and November, males of this species undertake incredible displays in order to attract mates. Unfortunately I was unable to capture this in the short amount of time I had available.

A Golden bowerbird blends in with its rainforest habitat surprisingly well considering its bright coloration.

Here a Golden bowerbird surveys his bower from an elevated perch, he is no doubt keeping an eye out for out-of-place lichen and flowers disrupting his display perch.

This bowerbird is stashing both lichen to add to his display, and also seemingly food items in the fork of this tree. Oddly, he would stash a food item, and then return several minutes later and take it too the forest floor where it would be consumed in the undergrowth.

Delicate work flower arrangement..

This Golden bowerbird is astride his display perch, surrounded by lichen and pale flowers, all the things he needs to attract a mate. A wonderful species, and a privilege to have been able to witness and photograph.

A male Satin bowerbird stands to attention in his beautifully constructed bower. This species collects and displays blue objects around the bower, as can be seen in these images. Unfortunately due to the ready availability of litter, often the blue objects of choice around the modern bower consist of various types of plastic.

Maintenance work..

And a side on profile shot. The eye is what strikes me about this species.

A more elusive female. It took several hours of waiting in a hide for her to materialise briefly in a photographable position, the bower having been constructed in fairly dense undergrowth.

Finally a Tooth-billed bowerbird in the dappled rainforest light.

And calling to attract females.

My readers can expect more from Australia from December, but first, more coverage and conservation content from Ecuador where I will be returning shortly.

*NOTE - written in a hurry, please forgive grammatical errors etc.. Will correct/add more when I have time.

Four weeks, three sites and over 100 species of herps later and here I am safe and sound (though horrendously scarred with mosquito bites and chiggers) and about to fly back to Quito to rejoin my colleagues from Operation Wallacea.

As is my way, I only spent one night in Quito at the beginning, with more to follow, and so as yet have not formed any opinions beyond judging the coffee to be good and the road traffic and exhaust fumes bad.

Onto the important stuff, my first survey site was the cloud forest reserve of Santa Lucia, around 40km from Mindo, an area well visited by tourists from Europe and North America. Ascending to the lodge required a steep hike of around three hours through beautiful forest laden with moss and epiphytes, luckily, the community that runs the lodge use mules to help carry up gear – or else between us biologists with our kit and our fantastic group of students from Ponderosa High School (United States) we would have struggled! The lodge itself sits at around 2000m altitude. We arrived at the top in time to witness a stunning sunset over the Andean foothills.

I had high hopes for my surveys, a large number of unique, endemic, bizarre, colorful and in many cases threatened species of herpetofauna are likely present at Santa Lucia, the reserve covers a broad altitudinal band, has large tracts of pristine primary forest along with more disturbed areas, and LOTS of streams that scream glass frog and Eyelash pitviper. Over the course of the week, my hopes were largely brushed aside by unseasonably wet and cool weather. This made for some great amphibian finds including the Emerald glass frog (Espadarana prosoblepon) and this Pinocchio rainfrog (Pristimantis appendiculatus).

Espadarana prosoblepon

Pristimantis appendiculatus

There were a small number of reptile highlights including Elegant snail sucker (Dipsas elegans) with thanks to Maddie! The sadly endangered Occellated riama (Riama oculata), and the beautiful Equatorial anole (Anolis aequitorialis). The total number of herp species for the week was a relatively meager 14. I’m certain that this number will increase massively over the season!

Anolis aequitorialis

Riama oculata

Dipsas elegans

As a side to my herp surveys, I have also been tasked with filming a documentary of the expedition – which enabled me to spend some time observing additional fauna. This led to some very early and wet mornings out alone in the field with my camera gear, a species I was especially successful during that first week was Andean cock-of-the-rock.. Simply put, incredible.

Andean cock-of-the-rock

What a privilege to witness.

The next site required a 9 hour bus journey, an overnight stay in Coca, another two hours on the bus and finally a transfer by canoe along the Shiripuno river, into land inhabited by the Waorani people. An indigenous people who largely follow a traditional lifestyle in the rainforest. On arriving, camp was swiftly established, tents, hammocks and living space allocated – during which time Neke, a Waorani community leader, informed me that there was an ‘echis’ a generic term for fer-de-lance like vipers in the area, in the long-drops. I swiftly relocated said Bothrops atrox.

Bothrops atrox

Things at this point were looking up for the reptiles! My hopes high, I wasted no time and as soon as the sun had set I was off into the forest, within 200m of camp, I located a stunning adult Bothriposis taeniata, a speckled forest pitviper! This is a bit of a dream snake.. I returned the following morning and was able to find the snake perched nearby allowing for the following photos.

Bothriopsis taeniata

Over the course of the week it became evident that the banks of the Shiripuno and adjacent oxbows and lagoons would offer some of the best herping of my life, especially for amphibians. Examples below..

Ameerga bilinguis

Dendropsophus sarayacunensis

Hemiphractus scutatus

The total herp species tally for the week on the Shiripuno was 53 – an excellent start, with many more potentially present species. A couple more of my favourites below.

Anilius scytale

Liophis typhus

Many thanks to my colleagues, and to the students and teachers from Ponderosa High School who helped make the two weeks a most enjoyable and memorable experience. Here’s hoping for a Bushmaster during the next phase..

After the two hectic weeks of set-up and initial familiarization with the survey sites, two weeks of time off ensued. I travelled with my colleagues and the students to Coca where I left them and headed along the Rio Napo in the direction of Yasuni – first stop Sani Lodge. It would have been nice to rest for a day or two at this point.. However, seeing three species of monkey on my way to the lodge ruled this out. I had to get back out into the forest with my camera. For these two weeks, my days consisted of 5.30 breakfast, a morning spent tracking down various birds and monkeys, lunch at 13.00, two hours for workout/photo processing, 15.00 back into the forest for around three hours in search of more birds/monkeys/reptiles. Return for dinner at 19.00, and then out in the forest from 20.00 until sleep became inevitable. Here are some of the results..

Woolly monkey

Squirrel monkey

hmm...

'monkey business'

Red howler monkey

For anyone that has studied monkeys or attempted to photograph them, you will appreciated the many hours of trekking through the forest these images required..

Herons are one of my favourite groups of birds, this next bird, the least bittern, had me hooked from day one,.I heard one calling and I HAD to get shots of it. A tiny and secretive heron with a poorly known distribution, these images took several afternoons to acquire. Late afternoon seemed to be the best time to go looking.

Least bittern

Striated heron

Rufescent tiger heron

American pygmy kingfisher

Purple honeycreeper

Green and rufous kingfisher

White chinned jacamar

Crested owl.. boom!

Some final herp highlights from my two week stint included rainbow boa, a beautifully colored amazon tree boa, an orange-banded coral snake, red-vine snake, Amazon dwarf iguana and three species of Caiman. I managed two all dusk to dawn sessions in this time, these were definitely the most productive. I actually found most snake activity between 00.30-3.00am, with some snakes as late as 05.00. I may well trial this at my survey sites over the coming weeks.

Enyaliodes laticeps - Male