Lamington NP -- Saltuarius swaini

[moloch]

Last Friday was Australia Day, a public holiday. I used a couple of days of leave and drove for 14 hours up to a herp camp at the base of the Lamington Plateau. This area is situated about two hours southwest of Brisbane. I think that Lamington National Park is one of the prettiest in Australia with excellent sub-tropical rainforest. If any of you head over here, I would highly recommend a visit to this area.

While at the camp, we went on night walks on the plateau. Leaf-tailed Geckos (Saltuarius swaini) were common in the forest. I was really pleased to see these beautiful geckos for the first time.

Here are a few habitat shots.

Antarctic Beech Tree (Nothofagus sp.)

A strangler fig. This species of tree seemed to be a favourite haunt of the gecko.

Leaf-tails were wonderfully camouflaged when on the trunk of a strangler fig.

Others were seen on rocks.

This one had a regen'ed tail. It was beneath a house.

One gecko was carrying a number of mites.

 

[vierfleck]

Hello,

everytime time i see your pics,just want to pack my things to go there.It´s absolutely amazing

regards

Matthias

 

[Minhawali]

Very nice, David, as usual.

Cheers,
Johan

 

[onemayonaise]

i love your posts!!! :lol: :lol:

 

[Strophurus]

hello, great pictures of a great gecko.
thanks for sharing them.
regards stefan

 

[geckodan]

What do you mean by a "herp camp".???

 

[moloch]

Hello Danny,

It was a gathering of a few participants from the Aussie Reptile Keepers ("ARK") forum. I drove up from Wollongong and one guy flew down from Rockhampton. All of the others were from Brisbane or Noosa. I think that this is an annual event although the location varies from year to year.

Regards,
David

 

[saltuarius]

Thank´s David,i like very much your post.

Best regards,
Roberto.

 

[eipper]

David,

It was fun showing you your first swaini.....I told you toilet blocks are a good place to start.

And your face was worth a pic with amount of excitment you had, when I handed you that gecko lol.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Scott

 

[MiCh@3L]

Great as always!

Thanks for this great gecko impression, David!

cheers,
Michael

 

[Ken Bartenfeld]

Man o' man! Those are some funky looking trees! I would wanna live in there too if I was a gecko ;-)

Thanks for such amazing pics, as usual David!

 

[moloch]

Thanks, everyone, for the compliments.


Eipper wrote:

It was fun showing you your first swaini

Thanks, Scott, for all of your help. It was great to meet you and the others ... and see some of your amazing pics.

I have visited Lamington many times but had never seen these incredible geckos. I had no idea that they were common. I guess that it is all in knowing where to look. They were not hard to spot on the buildings, but seeing them on the forest trees was not so easy.

Regards,
David

 

[DDReptiles]

Fantastic, swani are SO COOL 8)

Man I want to go to Australia

 

[eipper]

David,

The key to all field herping is "knowing where to look" good to catch up with you.

It looks like fraser Island is the next one!

Cheers,
Scott

 

[Sarah]

Oooooo...definitely going to the Fraser Island one, they have hotels there LMAO!!

 

[Sarah]

Forgot to mention, great photos of one of my favourite species. I have another clutch of swaini eggs coming due soon YAY!

 

[Jayson]

Here are a few more pic's from the weekend

Shame about the mites on this little lady

Cheers Jayson :wink:

 

[moloch]

Thanks, Sarah.

Fraser Island should be lots of fun! I have never been there but it looks beautiful in photos.

Jayson,
I did not realize that you were on this forum. The camp was excellent and it was good to meet up with a number of you Queenslanders.

Regards,
David

 

[Tariq Stark]

That sure must have been one great herping trip! Great pictures of a wonderfull species guys!

Tariq