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Re: Another 60 hours - no sleep revisited

PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 9:06 pm
by Bert Vandebosch
In summary, quite a nice trip albeit with slightly disappointing results.


If these results are slightly disappointing for 60 hours, I really have to go to Israƫl :)
A very cool trip!

Re: Another 60 hours - no sleep revisited

PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 9:07 am
by Kristian Munkholm
Thanks, Bert.

Perhaps calling it disappointing is a bit of a stretch. Nonetheless, though numbers aren't everything, a few of them can illustrate my point.

I have been on three dedicated herping trips to Israel (won't include our family vacation in the comparison, premises were too different). On each of those three trips I arrived on a Friday. If I look at the finds for the period Friday afternoon - Sunday evening they line up like this:

2011
Vipers (specimens / species): 19/4
Other snakes (specimens / species): 9/7
Other herps (species): 20

2014
Vipers (specimens / species): 14/5
Other snakes (specimens / species): 5/5
Other herps (species): 20

2015
Vipers (specimens / species): 2/2
Other snakes (specimens / species): 10/5
Other herps (species): 21

What stands out is obviously the lack of vipers on this year's trip.

Furthermore, I missed 4 out of my 5 top targets and 5 out of my top 6 or 7 (including all my top 4 snake targets).

Finally, while I'm not going to compare the numbers for new species as obviously they get progressively harder to come by, I had thought it realistic to hope for 1 or 2 more.

All that said, I'm still happy with the trip and the joys of finding what I did certainly outweigh the disappointments of not finding what I didn't.

Oh, and do go. You won't find similar diversity in such a small space anywhere else equally close to Europe.

Re: Another 60 hours - no sleep revisited

PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 7:25 pm
by Bert Vandebosch
Well I can see how you got spoiled ;)

Some day I definitely will go there. Something else to dream about...