moloch
New member
Nicholas and I camped for several days at Lakeside Camp in the Cape Range National Park. This park is about a 45 minute drive from the small town of Exmouth. Lakeside Camp was more appealing than most of the others since it had a few trees that provided a little shade during the hot hours of the day.
The vegetation around the camp and the nearby hills was sparse and the scenery was bleak.
However, when facing the ocean, the view was spectacular.
This was Ningaloo Reef, Australia’s second largest coral reef. The main body of the reef was about 1-2 kms offshore but there was plenty of coral just a short swim from the beach. The water in the lagoon was warm and crystal clear. Snorkelling was superb with many highly coloured reef fish. Sharks were more common than anywhere else that I have visited. We saw Reef Whitetip and Reef Blacktip Sharks every time that we entered the water.
We spent several hours each day snorkelling and enjoying the fish. At night, we drove along the road through the national park and looked for reptiles.
We found these lovely geckos each night at Cape Range. These are Smooth Knob-tailed Geckos (Nephrurus levis occidentalis). I initially thought that they were of the Pilbara race (N. l. pilbarensis) due to their yellow-orange colouration. The first individual below was huge and easily the biggest gecko that we found on the trip.
Some of knob-tails were more pink and blue.
All of the knob-tails were quite different to the N. l. occidentalis that we found at Shark Bay. I wonder whether there has been some blending with N. l. pilbarensis since the Pilbara is not far from Exmouth? Several reptiles that are mostly found in the Pilbara also have outlying populations on the North West Cape (e.g., Pilbara Death Adder).
I believe this to be a Sand-plain Gecko (Diplodactylus stenodactylus). It is another of the speedy geckos that could quickly dash off the road and into cover. We saw these geckos sprint several meters at a time. We encountered Sand-plain Geckos once or twice on most evenings.
The highly variable Bynoe’s Gecko (Heteronotia binoei) was seen a few times.
The following are photographs of a Burton's Snake-lizard (Lialis burtonis). This species is one of the common gecko predators of the area. It is a member of the Australian family of "flap-footed" lizards, Pygopodidae. Some of these have tiny, flap-like hind legs hence the name. Pygopodids are a close relative of the gecko family.
If anyone would like to see underwater photos of Ningaloo, then have a look at this post. These were photos taken by one of my work colleagues early last year.
http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2563
The vegetation around the camp and the nearby hills was sparse and the scenery was bleak.
However, when facing the ocean, the view was spectacular.
This was Ningaloo Reef, Australia’s second largest coral reef. The main body of the reef was about 1-2 kms offshore but there was plenty of coral just a short swim from the beach. The water in the lagoon was warm and crystal clear. Snorkelling was superb with many highly coloured reef fish. Sharks were more common than anywhere else that I have visited. We saw Reef Whitetip and Reef Blacktip Sharks every time that we entered the water.
We spent several hours each day snorkelling and enjoying the fish. At night, we drove along the road through the national park and looked for reptiles.
We found these lovely geckos each night at Cape Range. These are Smooth Knob-tailed Geckos (Nephrurus levis occidentalis). I initially thought that they were of the Pilbara race (N. l. pilbarensis) due to their yellow-orange colouration. The first individual below was huge and easily the biggest gecko that we found on the trip.
Some of knob-tails were more pink and blue.
All of the knob-tails were quite different to the N. l. occidentalis that we found at Shark Bay. I wonder whether there has been some blending with N. l. pilbarensis since the Pilbara is not far from Exmouth? Several reptiles that are mostly found in the Pilbara also have outlying populations on the North West Cape (e.g., Pilbara Death Adder).
I believe this to be a Sand-plain Gecko (Diplodactylus stenodactylus). It is another of the speedy geckos that could quickly dash off the road and into cover. We saw these geckos sprint several meters at a time. We encountered Sand-plain Geckos once or twice on most evenings.
The highly variable Bynoe’s Gecko (Heteronotia binoei) was seen a few times.
The following are photographs of a Burton's Snake-lizard (Lialis burtonis). This species is one of the common gecko predators of the area. It is a member of the Australian family of "flap-footed" lizards, Pygopodidae. Some of these have tiny, flap-like hind legs hence the name. Pygopodids are a close relative of the gecko family.
If anyone would like to see underwater photos of Ningaloo, then have a look at this post. These were photos taken by one of my work colleagues early last year.
http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2563
