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Re: tripreport Sri Lanka

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 12:56 am
by lakiere pieter
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geochelone elegans

Re: tripreport Sri Lanka

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 12:58 am
by lakiere pieter
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calotes versicolor

Re: tripreport Sri Lanka

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 12:59 am
by lakiere pieter
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calotes nigrilabris

Re: tripreport Sri Lanka

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 1:00 am
by lakiere pieter
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sphaerotheca breviceps

Re: tripreport Sri Lanka

PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:26 am
by Guillaume Blanchet
Wow! impressive findings!

Any picture of the B.caeruleus??? And what was the context of the encounter (as much as you can remember ;) )

The Trimeresurus trigonocephalus colour pattern is amazing :o
Do you know if the pattern is already present at birth or is it coming later on (like the Wagler's pitviper)? After a quick search on-line I think the former but want confirmation...

Thanks,
Guillaume

Re: tripreport Sri Lanka

PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 2:21 pm
by lakiere pieter
Guillaume Blanchet wrote:Wow! impressive findings!

Any picture of the B.caeruleus??? And what was the context of the encounter (as much as you can remember ;) )

The Trimeresurus trigonocephalus colour pattern is amazing :o
Do you know if the pattern is already present at birth or is it coming later on (like the Wagler's pitviper)? After a quick search on-line I think the former but want confirmation...

Thanks,
Guillaume

Hello Guillaume

I did a little bit research about the trimeresurus. It seems like both juveniles and adults can have a blue coloration instead of green. But I dont know if all new born babies have a blue coloration. Females are also more greenisch than males. Males tend to be more blue. Also the wetzone trimeresurus has a more pronounced black pattern. The one I found was at Sinharaja rainforest. The wettest place in Sri Lanka.

We could not manage to capture the krait on a picture. It was fast moving through the vegetation. We found it close to Sinharaja on a pad near human settlements.

On the way back in that same night we found the huge python. Python molurus is not common in Sri lanka. I was wandering if it is possible that the python was attracted by our smell. Offcourse this python does not feed on humans but they can only rely on there smell to locate prey. We left a strong smell behind the first time we stopped by this small stream because we were all swetting a lot. On the way back it was laying right there where we stopped before for a while. I remember a story from a local farmer in Costa Rica who woke up one morning with a boa constrictor around his leg.

Re: tripreport Sri Lanka

PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 2:51 pm
by Michal Szkudlarek
lakiere pieter wrote:
Guillaume Blanchet wrote:Wow! impressive findings!

Any picture of the B.caeruleus??? And what was the context of the encounter (as much as you can remember ;) )

The Trimeresurus trigonocephalus colour pattern is amazing :o
Do you know if the pattern is already present at birth or is it coming later on (like the Wagler's pitviper)? After a quick search on-line I think the former but want confirmation...

Thanks,
Guillaume

Hello Guillaume

I did a little bit research about the trimeresurus. It seems like both juveniles and adults can have a blue coloration instead of green. But I dont know if all new born babies have a blue coloration. Females are also more greenisch than males. Males tend to be more blue. Also the wetzone trimeresurus has a more pronounced black pattern. The one I found was at Sinharaja rainforest. The wettest place in Sri Lanka.

We could not manage to capture the krait on a picture. It was fast moving through the vegetation. We found it close to Sinharaja on a pad near human settlements.

On the way back in that same night we found the huge python. Python molurus is not common in Sri lanka. I was wandering if it is possible that the python was attracted by our smell. Offcourse this python does not feed on humans but they can only rely on there smell to locate prey. We left a strong smell behind the first time we stopped by this small stream because we were all swetting a lot. On the way back it was laying right there where we stopped before for a while. I remember a story from a local farmer in Costa Rica who woke up one morning with a boa constrictor around his leg.

I encountered this species in Sinharaja as well. If i remember correctly the snake was shown to me by our guide and the snake was motionlessly waiting for its pray (i suppose).
Image

Re: tripreport Sri Lanka

PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 2:59 pm
by Ilian Velikov
While everybody is drooling over the snakes I want to ask about the tortoise. It´s a great find, a threatened species that can only be found in Sri Lanka and two other disjunct locations far to the north of India and Pakistan. It is likely that the three populations are also taxonomically different. Was this species common there, or was this the only one you found?

Re: tripreport Sri Lanka

PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 8:15 pm
by Ruggero M.
Ilian Velikov wrote:While everybody is drooling over the snakes I want to ask about the tortoise. It´s a great find, a threatened species that can only be found in Sri Lanka and two other disjunct locations far to the north of India and Pakistan. It is likely that the three populations are also taxonomically different. Was this species common there, or was this the only one you found?


I saw the same Geochelone, probably even two specimens (one certainly, and I've pictures/slides) nearby the Yala National Park in the south of the island.
About molurus and the smell of humans: it could be simply a lucky encounter. The smell is a good idea, ok, but one or two cases are too few to arrive to some conclusions...

Re: tripreport Sri Lanka

PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 9:50 pm
by lakiere pieter
Ilian Velikov wrote:While everybody is drooling over the snakes I want to ask about the tortoise. It´s a great find, a threatened species that can only be found in Sri Lanka and two other disjunct locations far to the north of India and Pakistan. It is likely that the three populations are also taxonomically different. Was this species common there, or was this the only one you found?


Hello Ilian

I only found one land turtle. Very close to Wilpattu national parc. Along an unplaved route close to a little farming community. I asked myself the same question. Is it common here? So I asked the locals about it. They told me they see them sometimes. We don't like to see turtles on our farmland when we just planted crops. They eat the young plants was there answer. We don't like to kill them but often they get killed accidently by fire. A few days later I found a shell from a turtle on farmland. I could see it was burned a
life. What a pity. So I think that specie is only locally common. It was found few hundred meters from the national parc.