moloch
New member
My son, Nicholas, and I recently went on an eleven-day herping trip to the far north of Queensland. Among the places that we visited was the Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park. This park is situated in the lower, central portion of the Cape York Peninsula. The habitat of the park consists of limestone and granite outcrops surrounded by dry savannah. There are many limestone caves in the park but we remained above ground to look for the herps.
The park was scenic with rugged, sharp-edged spires of limestone. Here are a few habitat shots.
A Picasso? Easter Island? ...an amazing formation.
... dry, open forest between the limestone hills.
This park was the home of several species of geckos. Most interesting of these was the large Ring-tailed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus louisiadensis). What an incredible gecko! On the first night, we found three of these on the upper talus slopes of one of the hills that we climbed. The geckos were alert, wary and agile and they all quickly hopped from rock to rock until they disappeared into crevices. There was no chance for a photograph at all. On the second night, we found an area with grass and this slowed the geckos enough so that we could take a few photos. I think that ring-tails are abundant in this area and we saw at least a dozen on the second night.
Here are a few pics:
This was the habitat where we found the geckos to be the most common. It was rocky with lots of vines and thickets.
Other geckos on the rocks included Prickly Gecko (Heteronotia binoei), a small Gehyra nana (no photos) and this Gehyra dubia.
This gecko has me confused. It became active before dark. I could never approach it closely enough to be certain as to its identity. I tend to think that it is a very dark G. dubia but I am not certain.
We went night driving through savannah country that looked like th following:
In this area, we found a nicely patterned Box-patterned Gecko (Diplodactylus steindachneri), the only one recorded on our trip.
... Next will be geckos from the Cooktown area
Regards,
David
The park was scenic with rugged, sharp-edged spires of limestone. Here are a few habitat shots.
A Picasso? Easter Island? ...an amazing formation.
... dry, open forest between the limestone hills.
This park was the home of several species of geckos. Most interesting of these was the large Ring-tailed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus louisiadensis). What an incredible gecko! On the first night, we found three of these on the upper talus slopes of one of the hills that we climbed. The geckos were alert, wary and agile and they all quickly hopped from rock to rock until they disappeared into crevices. There was no chance for a photograph at all. On the second night, we found an area with grass and this slowed the geckos enough so that we could take a few photos. I think that ring-tails are abundant in this area and we saw at least a dozen on the second night.
Here are a few pics:
This was the habitat where we found the geckos to be the most common. It was rocky with lots of vines and thickets.
Other geckos on the rocks included Prickly Gecko (Heteronotia binoei), a small Gehyra nana (no photos) and this Gehyra dubia.
This gecko has me confused. It became active before dark. I could never approach it closely enough to be certain as to its identity. I tend to think that it is a very dark G. dubia but I am not certain.
We went night driving through savannah country that looked like th following:
In this area, we found a nicely patterned Box-patterned Gecko (Diplodactylus steindachneri), the only one recorded on our trip.
... Next will be geckos from the Cooktown area
Regards,
David
