I haven't posted a lot since a while but I am currently doing a big (2.5 month) trip through China and Japan. Meanwhile, of course I am keeping my eyes open for any herps to be seen. Those I wanted to share with you in this post. I'll try to upload some pictures when the internet is allowing me to but here is a summary of the first week.
Week 1: Surrounding of Chengdu
We flew from Amsterdam to Chengdu with a transfer in Hong Kong. A long flight (13 hours) was pretty exhausting so the first days were spent adjusting and coping with the weather (around 30 degrees Celsius and a very high humidity) and the spicy food. The parks in Chengdu revealed some herps but they were all a big ''iffy''.
Bull frog Lithobates catesbeianus, probably introduced from the local restaurants as they were quite easy to get for consumption.
Red-eared sliders that were introduced. The park had a ''release pond''. Unfortunately, someone also released a land turtle that had made its way in the water and did not come out of it...
The pond was full of Trachemys species and several others that I could not identify. The big floating thing in the water was the land turtle.
I also saw sea turtles and an actual Chinese Giant Salamander being sold in the local fish market. This is the one that really got to me. Highly endangered and protected and still being offered here to eat. Pretty much everything that moves, slithers, crawls, flies, swims or jumps, you can be certain there are Chinese people who eat them.
However, we made some small trips to Leshan and the Qingcheng mountains which revealed the very first herps.
Leshan, for any who have been to Chengdu should be familiar. A very touristy place, the tallest buddha can be found here. Luckily, it seems that the Chinese prefer to only go to the main tourist spot and don't wander about that much. Some secluded temples where disturbance was not that high revealed the first skink!
Sphenomorphus indicus (corrected, thanks to Kevin Messenger)
The habitat of Sphenomorphus indicus
There was a renovation of a nearby temple which they showed ,had snake sheds in the wood of some of the pillars. No snake unfortunately for me that day so what species it was remains a mystery.
Anyhow, the following day we went to the Qingcheng mountains. A truly breathtaking place. For me this was the first time in a ''somewhat'' jungle environment but very rewarding. A large climb up the mountain with nice views again revealed some E. chinensis. On the way there I told my girlfriend that we might have a chance of seeing snakes. Not even 5 min. later she says, ''Tim, is that a snake?!'' I turn around and right next to the path she points to a large curled-up snake. It turned out to be a big pitviper: Protobothrops mucrosquamatus. Surprisingly the snake was right next to the path where maybe more than 100 people already passed that day. The animal did not bother it that much and the pictures were taken without handling.
Protobothrops mucrosquamatus
As seen by my girlfriend
Close-up
This is how close it was to the path
At the end of the day we passed some small creeks with pools. There were large tadpoles in the water so we took a closer look. Four big frogs jumped from the shore into the water. With some doubts I started feeling around in the murky water (I wasn't sure what else might be there). Luckily I felt one of the frogs and got it to pose. A Paa species (yet to be determined). Sturdy and big frogs.
Habitat where the frog was found. Muddy shallow pools in mountain streams
Other amphibians sighted on the slopes of the mountains was, what I presume to be Asiatic toad: Bufo gargarizans (please correct me if I am wrong). Also some brownish Rana-like frog escaped in between the bamboo.
Bufo gargarizans
That was it for the Chengdu adventures. We then left for Chongqing, Lijiang and currently Dali. I will try to upload some pictures of the herps that were found there.
Hope you enjoyed reading and with the best regards,
Tim
.
, I'm indeed setting a challenge but that gets me places! Fingers crossed still and else it's back again for another trip.