Western Cape and Northern Cape 2013.

[Lourance Klose]

Over the course of the year I will add a few of the finds I am lucky enough to enjoy. I am fortunate enough to visit both provinces, so I will add all records under one thread.

Red Adder - Bitis rubida.


Horned Adder - Bitis caudalis.
Neonate.


Spotted House Snake - Lamprophis guttatus.


Marico Gecko - Pachydactylus mariquensis.


Brown House Snake - Boaedon capensis.


Fisk's House Snake - Lamprophis fiskii. (unfortunately my second DOR, hopefully the old saying 3rd time lucky works for me).lol.


Austen's Gecko - Pachydactylus austeni.


Quartz Gecko - Pachydactylus latirostris.


Beetz's Tiger Snake - Telescopus beetzii.


Western Dwarf Chameleon - Bradypodion occidentale.


Western Dwarf Chameleon - Bradypodion occidentale.

[Westley Price]

Some great finds there, Lou.

It's a real art to get flash photography to look good, and seems you have mastered it!

Congrats on all the great finds and I wish you happy herping. Can't wait for future updates on this topic!

[Blake]

Very nice finds. Look forward to seeing more

[jka]

Looking good The Klose Liking the House snakes and Chameleons!

[rvanhuyssteen]

Very nice shots.

I am sure that you will get lucky with a live Fisk's House Snake. Maybe not the third time, but it will come.

[nvlooi]

Now you go screw up my "auto corrected photos" with your BRILLIANT PHOTOGRAPHY!!!!

WD mate, our luck is def changing for the better!

H

[Craigh]

Wow! Really amazing photos! Thanks for sharing.

Just a question from a newbie, the snake you labelled as Boaedon capensis, I would have identified as Boaedon mentalis, how would we be able to exclude that possibility? From the location your specimen was found or what?

Regards,

Craig

[Lourance Klose]

Thanks so much for the kind comments. Henco you got some keepers there yourself.

@Craigh- That Brown House Snake was found in range and would most likely be B mentalis, but to my knowledge it has not been finalized and work is ongoing with the "lamprophis" genus. So until such time that the paper is published and B mentalis is confirmed as a valid species all Brown House Snakes found in Western/Northern Cape will be B capensis.

[GOM]

Amazing pics..... Thanks for sharing.... Looking forward to more amazing pics!!!!

[Serpent]

Lourance another top class post! WOW a Fisk's house snake, good to know they are still around.

[wadekilian]

Are Red Adders common where you are? You've had some awesome luck with Dwarf Adders (and in general really).

It's sad that the Fisk's House-snake was dead, but still an amazing find nonetheless.

[nvlooi]

@ wadekilian

If you count the amount of hours, days, months, kilometers... trail and error in different places to seek for specific species, I would not even answer your question if I was Lourance.

Here is my stupid answer... "All snakes are common in the right area, but he lives in Cape town so they are not common where he is!"


H

[Lourance Klose]

@ wadekilian - As nvlooi said, Bitis rubida is not common where I stay, I travel vast distances in order to find the species that I find. Sometimes I am lucky and sometimes I am not. Again as nvlooi said, most species can be "common" to a particular area.

I believe that the more time spent in the field (in the right conditions) the more chance you have of been "lucky" and finding the desired species. we are not even 3 months into the year and I have already done over 5000km in herping, so far my theory of more time spent equals results is working. I often hear okes saying that they went looking for a certain species but can't find, upon asking how long they searched for it they normally say a couple hours one morning, LOL. I wish I could find all my target species in a couple hours of walking. It took me 2 years and plenty trips to finally find my first Bitis armata.

Hopefully my luck continues and I can continue to share photo's from my journeys.

Thanks.

[kfc223]

Amazing shots again Lourance!

[jka]

@ wadekilian - As nvlooi said, Bitis rubida is not common where I stay, I travel vast distances in order to find the species that I find. Sometimes I am lucky and sometimes I am not. Again as nvlooi said, most species can be "common" to a particular area.

I believe that the more time spent in the field (in the right conditions) the more chance you have of been "lucky" and finding the desired species. we are not even 3 months into the year and I have already done over 5000km in herping, so far my theory of more time spent equals results is working. I often hear okes saying that they went looking for a certain species but can't find, upon asking how long they searched for it they normally say a couple hours one morning, LOL. I wish I could find all my target species in a couple hours of walking. It took me 2 years and plenty trips to finally find my first Bitis armata.

Hopefully my luck continues and I can continue to share photo's from my journeys.

Thanks.

A true inspiration to us all! The hard work and dedication pays off, just not when I'm around