Hi everbody out there!
It's been a while but other than having been very busy I was away: 16 days out hiking the Larapinta Trail. For all you non-Aussies out there, the Larapinta Trail is 223 km along the Western Macdonnell Range in central Australia (starting in Alice Springs). Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to do it all but we did 180 km of it. Here's a selection of the pics I took out there - there might be a better shot of one or the other specimen but I still haven't had a chance to sort through them properly... (I took over a 1000 photos!)
The Macdonnell ranges (not to be confused with the Macdonnell Bioregion) do not include habitat for e.g. the moloch (unfortunately!) and military dragons, most of it is more or less rocky, it includes gorges, sandy/rocky riverbeds, 'forest' and open habitat. In total we managed to come up with just under half of the reptile species that have been recorded and all four species of frogs - given the very limited means (i.e. just headlamps for spotting) that's not too bad I reckon. I saw many more animals than I managed to photograph but but a lot of the skinks were very secretive and very quick to disappear in leaf litter, spinnifex or cracks! Also, with a heavy pack on your back you're far from agile and jumping after them or treading softly can be a little difficult. Though this is contrary to what I have experienced in other areas, we saw less towards the end of the trip which coincided with a new moon. I certainly would have loved to see a nephrurus and pythons (just found a skin) as well, of course, but you can't have it all, can you?! However, I saw O marmorata (and couldn't have asked for more ...well, see for yourselves) as well as D galeatus and they were the two I had really hoped to find. Also, it gives me an excuse to go back some time (in summer?)!
I apologise for the quality of the marmorata pics (see part II) - they aren't great but the first one wouldn't come out of its crack second one was high up and had disappeared by the time I had climbed there.
Cheerio,
Mirja
It's been a while but other than having been very busy I was away: 16 days out hiking the Larapinta Trail. For all you non-Aussies out there, the Larapinta Trail is 223 km along the Western Macdonnell Range in central Australia (starting in Alice Springs). Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to do it all but we did 180 km of it. Here's a selection of the pics I took out there - there might be a better shot of one or the other specimen but I still haven't had a chance to sort through them properly... (I took over a 1000 photos!)
The Macdonnell ranges (not to be confused with the Macdonnell Bioregion) do not include habitat for e.g. the moloch (unfortunately!) and military dragons, most of it is more or less rocky, it includes gorges, sandy/rocky riverbeds, 'forest' and open habitat. In total we managed to come up with just under half of the reptile species that have been recorded and all four species of frogs - given the very limited means (i.e. just headlamps for spotting) that's not too bad I reckon. I saw many more animals than I managed to photograph but but a lot of the skinks were very secretive and very quick to disappear in leaf litter, spinnifex or cracks! Also, with a heavy pack on your back you're far from agile and jumping after them or treading softly can be a little difficult. Though this is contrary to what I have experienced in other areas, we saw less towards the end of the trip which coincided with a new moon. I certainly would have loved to see a nephrurus and pythons (just found a skin) as well, of course, but you can't have it all, can you?! However, I saw O marmorata (and couldn't have asked for more ...well, see for yourselves) as well as D galeatus and they were the two I had really hoped to find. Also, it gives me an excuse to go back some time (in summer?)!
I apologise for the quality of the marmorata pics (see part II) - they aren't great but the first one wouldn't come out of its crack second one was high up and had disappeared by the time I had climbed there.
Cheerio,
Mirja
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