Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

For your reports/images, made outside Europe and the "Mediterranean" countries. Not to be too narrow minded and limited to our European/Mediterranean herps.

Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

Postby Martti Niskanen » Wed Dec 28, 2011 3:34 pm

The 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).

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We stopped for lunch and I was looking for lizards. Suddenly a skink popped out from a stone fence. A lifer for me!

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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).

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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.

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Roque de las Bodegas:
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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.

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Dried Echium wildpretii inflorescences. The plant is an endemic and produces a 1-3m tall inflorescence every second year.
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We had permits to climb the Teide summit. Hard work climbing to 3718m.

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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.
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Back in colf Finland now and dying to go on holiday again.

Cheers,

Martti
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Re: Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

Postby GertJan Verspui » Wed Dec 28, 2011 5:39 pm

Congratulations Martti, and nice lizards!!
Amphibian & Reptile Adventures http://www.gertjanverspui.com
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Re: Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

Postby Bobby Bok » Wed Dec 28, 2011 6:53 pm

Congratulations Matti! Great scenery and beautiful lizards, I was thinking of going there next summer but those plans are posponed till a later date. I'm especially keen on seeing the introduced Anolis carolinensis living on the west coast and Chalcides viridanus which is stunning.
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Re: Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

Postby Martti Niskanen » Wed Dec 28, 2011 7:10 pm

Cheers, Bobby. Never heard of an Anolis introduction.
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Re: Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

Postby Sebastian Holzki » Wed Dec 28, 2011 7:27 pm

Great landscape.
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Re: Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

Postby Bobby Bok » Wed Dec 28, 2011 8:04 pm

They live in hotelgardens in Playa de Fañabe and seem to thrive over there.
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Re: Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

Postby Paul Lambourne » Wed Dec 28, 2011 8:14 pm

Martti,

Great to see some sunshine :D 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.

God I need a trip soon........

Paul
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Re: Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

Postby Martti Niskanen » Thu Dec 29, 2011 12:25 pm

Paul Lambourne wrote:Martti,

Great to see some sunshine :D 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.

God I need a trip soon........

Paul


Didn't see any skinks on Teide, only Gallotia. I was hoping to have some time at the pre-summit cable car station, but they had changed the schedules for the summit permits and we had to start climbing straight away. It was morning and the temperature at the lower base 1200m below was +4 degrees, so the temp at the top couldn't have been far from zero. Maybe I would have had more luck a bit later on in the day, but can't say I was too bothered.

Paul Lambourne wrote:God I need a trip soon........


Ditto. Got a taste for it now.

-Martti
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Re: Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Sun Jan 01, 2012 9:37 pm

Bobby Bok wrote:I'm especially keen on seeing the introduced Anolis carolinensis


ET lover ! :lol:
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Re: Tenerife, a lifer and lots of non-herp stuff.

Postby Sandra Panienka » Sun Jan 01, 2012 11:17 pm

Nice trip report. Loved the videos of the Gallotia. The skink is a pretty nice find, too. Looking at your pics makes me want to go on a holiday really badly.
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