Last Saturday

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Last Saturday

Postby Aviad Bar » Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:56 pm

As part of the preparations for the winter we try to check as many water holes as we can before the rain will come (even though that the yearly average rainfalls in our desert area is les than 110 mm).
Last Saturday Guy' Amir, Liam and me checked more than 10 water holes and found many reptiles species.
During this trip I lost my camera :cry: and all the photos presents in this massage were taken by Guy Haimovitch ©.
The main habitat type that we herped in was a stabilize dunes in the western Negev desert.
During Friday after noon we found plenty of Acanthodactylus sp. (mainly longipes and scutellatus) and other lizards like chameleons. There were plenty tracks of Sand fishes, but the hour was too late to find them - all the tracks ended in a gerbils borrows.
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Acanthodactylus scutellatus

During the night there was a very high activity of the species Cerastes vipera and Litorhyncus diadema (We found few next to our camp site).
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Cerastes vipera

We manage to see few rodent species like the Jaculus in this photo:
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Jaculus jaculus

On Saturday morning we started to check the water holes;
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We found:
3 Varanus griseus:
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me with a varanus

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1 walterinnesia aegyptia:
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1 Spalerosophis diadema:
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and many colubers rogersi and lizards.
Most of the animals were released (we took two of the Varanus to the wildlife hospital - hopefully they will be back in nature next spring).
On sunday I plan another 2 days trip in order to check another habitat (Rocky / Loess).
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Aviad Bar
 
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Re: Last Saturday

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Fri Sep 24, 2010 2:02 pm

Good Job Friends!!!
The Cobra pic is awesome!!!

Hope you get a new camera very soon!!!
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Re: Last Saturday

Postby Jimmy Lundqvist » Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:31 pm

Wow! Awesome to see some more "exotic" European (well, close middle east) species!
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Re: Last Saturday

Postby Daniel Kane » Fri Sep 24, 2010 5:55 pm

Wow, great animals and fantastic photos. Israel looks to have some very nice reptiles. I can imagine how exciting the water-holes expeditions must be! Shame you lost your camera Aviad, how did that happen?
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Re: Last Saturday

Postby Aviad Bar » Sat Sep 25, 2010 9:56 am

I came back to the jip after a long walk from a water hole with all the equipment (rope ladder, flashlight and my camera bag) and put every thing next to the car that was on the road.
After a short time we just drove away (stupid!!!) and I found that I forgot the equipment only when we arrived to the next water hole.
we came back to the same spot, but till than every thing gone :?
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Aviad Bar
 
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Re: Last Saturday

Postby Gabriel Martínez » Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:25 am

You enjoy a lot getting down to water holes! And it´s not a easy experience!! But I would get down 100 times to find a Walterennesia or Varanus ;)

It´s a pity you didn´t forget the things in a lost water hole where nobody would have cought it...

Regards Aviad!!
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