MOROCCO TRIP. AUGUST 2009

Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Libya, Egypt, Sinai

Re: TRAVEL TO MOROCCO. AUGUST 2009

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Wed Sep 15, 2010 1:24 pm

Gabri I´m very impressed, so many herps in the hottest time of the year, great job!!!
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Re: TRAVEL TO MOROCCO. AUGUST 2009

Postby Gabriel Martínez » Wed Sep 15, 2010 4:58 pm

Yes Jurgen, many herps and we didn´t see snakes at night crossing the roads in Reg and Desert areas. It was a pity but anyway a good trip!
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Re: MOROCCO TRIP. AUGUST 2009

Postby Gabriel Martínez » Wed Sep 15, 2010 5:04 pm

THIRD PART. HIGH ATLAS

1. High Atlas map.jpg
1. High Atlas map.jpg (53.99 KiB) Viewed 7386 times


The day 29 of August Raul and I driving to Marrakech were talking about the possibility to go to the high Atlas. High Atlas has many endemic reptiles and finally we decided to go there.
We arrived at 13hours to a good known village in high Atlas. Moroccan people came to us even in motorcycle to try to sell us tourist gifts. We saw an Atlantolacerta andreanskyi but moroccan people continued pressing us so finally we drove to a place without people. We began to look for herps and we found quickly many Quedenfeltia trachyblepharus, some Atlantolacerta andreanskyi and some Chalcides montanus. And when we had been looking for 1hour we found the nice Vipera monticola. We made some photos and released it quickly because we wanted to keep the ferry this night and cross before the massive Moroccan migration of the end of the summer to Germany, France and Spain.

1. High Atlas.jpg


2. Quedenfeltia trachyblepharus.jpg


3. Quedenfeltia trachyblepharus, close-up.jpg


4. Atlantolacerta.jpg
4. Atlantolacerta.jpg (199.2 KiB) Viewed 7391 times


5.Chalcides montanus.jpg
5.Chalcides montanus.jpg (184.04 KiB) Viewed 7387 times


7. Vipera monticola.jpg


6. Vipera monticola.jpg
6. Vipera monticola.jpg (108.75 KiB) Viewed 7379 times


8. Vipera monticola.jpg


9. Vipera monticola.jpg


10. Vipera monticola.jpg



We crossed to Spain at night…



List of herps observed

Amphibians:
1. Amietophrynus mauritanicus
2. Bufo boulengeri
3. Bufo bronsgermai
4. Hyla meridionalis
5. Pelophylax saharicus
Reptiles:
1. Tarentola mauritanica
2. Tarentola boehmei
3. Ptyodactylus oudrii
4. Tarentola chazaliae
5. Quedenfeldtia trachyblepharus
6. Saurodactylus brosseti
7. Tropiocolotes algericus
8. Agama impalearis
9. Uromastyx nigriventris
10. Chamaeleo chamaeleon chamaeleon (Dead)
11. Varanus griseus griseus (Dead)
12. Atlantolacerta andreanskyi
13. Acanthodactylus erythrurus
14. Acanthodactylus busacki
15. Acanthodactylus aureus
16. Acanthodactylus dumerili
17. Eumeces algeriensis
18. Chalcides ocellatus
19. Chalcides montanus
20. Chalcides polylepis
21. Chalcides sphenopsiformis (tracks)
22. Hemorrhois hippocrepis hippocrepis
23. Hemorrhois algirus intermedius
24. Spalerosophis dolichospilus (Dead)
25. Natrix maura
26. Malpolon monspessulanus saharatlanticus
27. Malpolon moilensis (Dead) (Scutophis moilensis)
28. Psammophis schokari
29. Naja haje (Naja haje legionis)
30. Vipera montícola
31. Daboia mauritanica (Dead) (Macrovipera mauritanica)
32. Cerastes cerastes cerastes
33. Bitis arietans arietans

We missed

1. Cerastes vipera. We stayed in the 3 best places of Morocco to this snake but moskitos and local people avoid our meeting
2. Echis leucogaster. We looked for it in Assa and Agdz, the best places for Echis in Morocco but...
3. Telescopus tripolitanus. We stayed in Agdz, Assa, Ouarzazate but summer mustn´t be good month for this catsnake
4. Daboia mauritanica. We only found a roadkilled individual. We was looking for this snake all the trip without succesfull.
5. Boaedon fuliginosus (Lamprophis fuliginosus). Close to Tan-tan is very common. We were looking for there but we weren´t lucked
6. Lytorhynchus diadema. Moskitos and no traks in north Tarfaya avoid our meeting
7. Spalerosophis cliffordi (Spalerosophis diadema). Maybe in north Tarfaya. Very rare snake in Morocco
8. Spalerosophis dolichospilus. We found 3 individuals road killed. 2 very recently. 1 could be killed 2minutes before we saw it. Bad lucky
9. Dasypeltis sahelensis. Rare in summer
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Re: TRAVEL TO MOROCCO. AUGUST 2009

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Wed Sep 15, 2010 5:16 pm

I love the vipera shots!!!
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Re: TRAVEL TO MOROCCO. AUGUST 2009

Postby Thomas Bader » Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:12 pm

Hi Gabri!

Excellent report - one of the most interesting ones for me!!

g's
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Re: TRAVEL TO MOROCCO. AUGUST 2009

Postby Mario Schweiger » Thu Sep 16, 2010 6:44 am

Hi Gabri,

again, also from your following parts - excellent shots :D
My favorite pic is definitively the Qu. trachyblepharus portrait ;)
.... and others without ranking:
Jaculus
Raul & cobra
T. chazaliae
A. busacki
Naja legionis juvenile, 1st pic

A question on your A. aureus juv. picture:
I cant see the small granular scales between the supraoculars and the eye, typical for members of the A. scutellatus group, on your pic.
Do you have a portrait or a detail of this image :?:

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Re: TRAVEL TO MOROCCO. AUGUST 2009

Postby Gabriel Martínez » Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:01 am

Thanks Jurgen and Thomas for your comments

Thank you Mario, Raul and cobra is for me one of the best photos. He was filmed and I haven´t photo with cobra :(
Respect the lizard:
Acanthodactylus.jpg
Acanthodactylus.jpg (97.07 KiB) Viewed 7341 times


In the area the typical Acanthodactylus is aureus (maybe the one), the closer Acanthodactylus is busacki in the north, but this summer I found a juvenile in the busacki area:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrimtnez ... 840115156/

Anyway I don´t know too much about lizards. In Morocco Acanthodactylus and Tarentola are the absolute mess!

What do you think about these two juvenile Acanthodactylus??
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Re: TRAVEL TO MOROCCO. AUGUST 2009

Postby Mario Schweiger » Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:32 am

You are not the only one - for sure!
Nearly nowbody may tell you the Acanthodactylus species with 100%.
But its easy to separate the aureus (the only one in coastal near areas in Morocco of the scutellatus group) from busaki (pardalis group).
All within the scutellatus group (scutellatus, aureus, longipes, dumerili) have these tiny granular scales between the Supraoculars and the eye.

aureus1.jpg
Acanthodactylus aureus, coastal dunes southwest of Tiznit


We found in all visited areas both species close together:aureus in the open coastal dunes and busacki in the with plants overgrown dunes and in the hinterland.
And in many cases they dont care for their habitat, given in literature ;)

I never have seen young busacki, so I dont know if these are heavily striped :?
The portrait you showed now, is aureus for sure :!:

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Re: TRAVEL TO MOROCCO. AUGUST 2009

Postby Gabriel Martínez » Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:56 am

Ok. Thank you for your explications, very interesting the sepraration between busaki group and scutellatus group. The striped juvenile was found in the exactly place of the adult busacki of the august trip. If I found this juvenile in another place I couln´t know the species!!! It´s strange the juvenile with striped design and the adult with green circles... it could be interesting to find a subadult to see the change!!! But in october you know my priority isn´t the lizards, I will go to Casablanca... ;)
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Re: TRAVEL TO MOROCCO. AUGUST 2009

Postby Grégoire Meier » Sat Sep 18, 2010 10:57 am

Very nices photos!!
Thank you!!
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