Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 3:34 pmThe gf and I had a quick holiday in the Canary island of Tenerife. Not really a herping holiday, but of course had to put some effort into spotting a lifer. We spent most of our holiday hiking the island's beautiful trails and enjoying the gorgeous nature. Our first hike was around Cruz del Carmen in the Anaga mountains. It has a nice laurel forest and good potential for coming across the endemic skink (Chalcides viridanus).
We stopped for lunch and I was looking for lizards. Suddenly a skink popped out from a stone fence. A lifer for me!
Next day we went to Icod to see the famous dragon tree (Dracaena draco) which is claimed to be between a thousand or two thousand years old, although it's real age is somewhere between 250 and 350 years. The tree is impressive enough, but the real reason for the visit was the "tame" Gallotia galloti eisentrauti. We pretty much ignored the tree and had a great time feeding the lizards apple (see videos).
A couple of videos. More of them on my channel:
http://youtu.be/yKeQ38L2WAQ
http://youtu.be/S2n1gbOtdKs
(disclaimer: You can see me catching a male in the second video. I only did this to get proper shots of the nuptial patches. A subject I work on.)
That's pretty much all the herping. Here are some other photos:
Gorgeous views from one of our walks in the Anaga mountains. You can see Roque de Fuera de Anaga in the background. It's a small islet with an endemic subspecies, Gallotia galloti insulanagae.
Roque de las Bodegas:
Spent a day in the Teide volcano national park. It's got amazing scenery and has been used in the filming of several films, including the original Planet of the Apes.
Dried Echium wildpretii inflorescences. The plant is an endemic and produces a 1-3m tall inflorescence every second year.
We had permits to climb the Teide summit. Hard work climbing to 3718m.
I also had a surprise planned for the summit. When we got up, I popped the big question and got a "yes". It was worth carrying a bottle of bubbly all that way.
Back in colf Finland now and dying to go on holiday again.
Cheers,
Martti
We stopped for lunch and I was looking for lizards. Suddenly a skink popped out from a stone fence. A lifer for me!
Next day we went to Icod to see the famous dragon tree (Dracaena draco) which is claimed to be between a thousand or two thousand years old, although it's real age is somewhere between 250 and 350 years. The tree is impressive enough, but the real reason for the visit was the "tame" Gallotia galloti eisentrauti. We pretty much ignored the tree and had a great time feeding the lizards apple (see videos).
A couple of videos. More of them on my channel:
http://youtu.be/yKeQ38L2WAQ
http://youtu.be/S2n1gbOtdKs
(disclaimer: You can see me catching a male in the second video. I only did this to get proper shots of the nuptial patches. A subject I work on.)
That's pretty much all the herping. Here are some other photos:
Gorgeous views from one of our walks in the Anaga mountains. You can see Roque de Fuera de Anaga in the background. It's a small islet with an endemic subspecies, Gallotia galloti insulanagae.
Roque de las Bodegas:
Spent a day in the Teide volcano national park. It's got amazing scenery and has been used in the filming of several films, including the original Planet of the Apes.
Dried Echium wildpretii inflorescences. The plant is an endemic and produces a 1-3m tall inflorescence every second year.
We had permits to climb the Teide summit. Hard work climbing to 3718m.
I also had a surprise planned for the summit. When we got up, I popped the big question and got a "yes". It was worth carrying a bottle of bubbly all that way.
Back in colf Finland now and dying to go on holiday again.
Cheers,
Martti
Did you find many skinks on Teide? When I visited I was inundated with the little fellas, really tame.. waiting for tourists to drop food scraps.