Limpopo / Mpumalanga herping

[BushSnake]

Some recent pics of lowveld reptiles, taken while doing butterfly surveys in the area. All in all we got 28 species of reptiles, but I hoped to see a few more snakes...!

Cordylus vandami / Van Dam's Girdle lizzard (Ndzalama NR) - ID using distribution


Naja mossambica / Mozambique spitting cobra (Nelspruit)


Dendroaspis polylepis / Black mamba in the blue


Pyxicephalus edulus / African bullfrog (Manyeleti NR)


Chiromantis xerampelina / Foam nest frog (Manyeleti NR)


Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia / Red-lipped herald (Klaserie NR)


Bitis arietans / Puff adder (Manyeleti NR)


Heliobolis lugubris / Bushveld lizzard juvenile (Klaserie NR) - also saw a lot in KNP


Platysaurus intermedius intermedius / Common flat lizzard male and female (Ndzalama NR) - ssp ID using distribution

[Fooble]

Awesome pictures thanks for sharing.
I really like those Platysaurus intermedius intermediu and Bushveld lizzard juvenile!

Awesome!

[Mitton]

Looks like you guys had fun, great photo of the Spitting Cobra.

[drummer]

nice one...

How big was that polylepis? Looks a decent size.
you should have messed with it....mambas in the blue are puppy dogs.

[rolandslf]

The pic of the Herald is awesome, like it posed for you.

[BushSnake]

LOL @ drummer. It was actually quite small. I saw various parts of it but never the complete snake and would guess it between 1.5m and 2m. That specific Herald was found active at 10h00 in the morning, just after it had a huge meal. It was cruising around in the grass...

[Mongoose]

Andre, did you have a crowbar and a tickle stick to wrangle out the vandami? Vandami and breyeri are like the coolest cordylidae! Do you see now how much spikier breyeri is?

Never thought I would be asking this, but where are the butterfly pictures??

[BushSnake]

Whooppeeeee. A converted herpetologist....!!!!!

No, no crowbar, but I did catch one. They were quite tame for Cordylus and one only managed to hide his head so I got him out easily. He then turned around and gave me a bloody eina bite, which made everyone roar with laughter .

Butterfly pics are on SANparks forum, at http://www.sanparks.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=30932. They are all a bit soft as I forgot to sharpen after resizing, and it takes too much time to delete and replace on photobucket. Note for next time...

[Mitton]

You Spitting Cobra pic now turned into a butterfly.

[rolandslf]

@mittone_79, Yeah, my first thought was "this is a first for Hybridisation"

[BushSnake]

Amazing! The result of a complete metamorphosis...

Can one of the mods please change the link to >>> http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww24 ... 1238143215 I don't want to confuse all the professional herpers out there...

[steve]

great pics dudes!! really nice!! awesome finds! black mamba must have been special!