Somaliland 2015

[Tomas Mazuch]

Dear colleagues and friends,

I am almost 14 days back from wonderful trip to Somaliland and Eastern Ethiopia.

I would like to share with you some of my pictures from these two very nice countries.

Don´t hesitate to ask me, if you have some questions about animals or traveling...

Link to the pictures is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/58603885@ ... 472339828/

Best wishes,
Tomas

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Intriguing and beautiful!

[Frédéric Seyffarth]

Speechless landscapes from a rarely seen destination.
Great thanks for sharing!
I appreciated the Aloe collection...and snakes, of course...
I see that you have some strange tools for herping?!

Regards

Fred

[Andre Schmid]

Very nice. Cute little Bitis Strange photo, you and the ethiopians with the kalaschnikows But looks like you are well arrived at home

[Guillaume Gomard]

Nice collection of pictures from an interesting part of the world. I share your enthusiasm for the local vegetation, but my love still goes to the Bitis You are showing a great variety of lizards, though snakes seem to be more difficult to observe: was it also the case during night sessions?

[Gabriel Martínez]

Cool Tomas! Another trip to the horn of Africa. I am surprised by the habitat of the Bitis, under that stone in the middle of that rocky habitat I would expect a Echis! (I love the habitats with red circle to know the exactly place where animal was found it). The Telescopus is also great! Cheers

[Martti Niskanen]

Nice stuff from a great destination.

[Jürgen Gebhart]

Very cool! Especially the Bitis, what a Beauty!!!

No Echis this time???

[Tomas Mazuch]

Thank you very much for all compliments!

Ethiopia and Somaliland (I am not talk about Puntland and southern Somalia) is very safe countries now. You can travel there without any problems. Somaliland is a little bit more bureaucratic country, but still ok. In Ethiopia you can go outside everywhere also at night, but this is not true for Somaliland. You must be on hotel room from 18,00 p.m. to 6,00 a.m. You cannot go outside at night. This is restriction from Somaliland government. Also you must have policeman with you all the stay. So, I think it is much more safe, than the traveling e.g. in Kenya
This is problem, if you want to look for herps at night or during the hot months. In Ethiopia this is not problém.
Snakes are quite rare in Somaliland. I think, that they are common only in short period, which is best for them. This time is in hot and "wet" months - April - July...January is the most cold and dry months in Somaliland. It is winter there now...

Yes, the locality of Bitis is rather strange. To much stones and almost no vegetation like scrubs or trees. As told Gabri, good locality rather for Echis than for Bitis..., but we all know, that Bitis aritans occupies a wide range of habitats...I was very happy with this small adder, because it is ssp. somalica and not only "normal" arietans

Tomas

[Tomas Mazuch]

...and no Echis. Although we have been in Echis country in Ethiopia and Somaliland, we were there only shortly or not at night. So NO Echis in this trip...