Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Accounts and photos of non-captive reptiles in their natural habitat outside of South Africa. Try to record with your account details such as time of day/night, temperature, weather conditions, lunar cycle, sex, rough age of reptile, and so on.

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Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby Westley Price » Thu Jul 18, 2013 7:02 pm

Hi All

I spent the past week in Mauritius with my new wife and family. Got married on the beach in Mauritius and used the trip as a wedding, honeymoon and family holiday, all in one. Very cool trip!

We stayed at a hotel on the north-western coast of the island called Le Cannonier, and I can honestly say BEST HOLIDAY EVER!

I did not have too much time for herping, keeping in mind the nature of the trip, but I did manage to see a few herps around the hotel. Here are a few pics I took on the hotel grounds. Sadly only one of the reptiles I found are native to the island, ie the rest are all introduced species. You will note the quality of the pics aren't great. For this trip I sacrificed optical zoom for waterproof capabilities, haha.

Phelsuma cepediana (I think). Some of the pics might be of other species, but I am not sure as they were quite skittish.

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Calotes versicolor. Apparently the locals call these "chameleons" as they also have the ability to change colour slightly

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Gehyra mutilata. Very cool geckos with webbing from their feet to their bodies. Almost look like they should be gliding rather than crawling.

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Lycodon capucinus eating G. mutilata

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And along the shoreline there were tons of mudskippers in certain areas, but they are way too skittish for me to even get close. If you look very carefully on this pic there are about 5 or 6 on the picture

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And that's it in terms of herps. The bulk of my time I spent in the ocean snorkeling, swimming, etc, so I got a few nice pics of some fish, eels and corals. Here are a ton of pics without IDs. The variety of fish was amazing. It was like swimming through a pet shop display. It was my first time taking pics underwater and it was a lot more difficult than I imagined; with the mater moving, your body moving and the fish moving...not easy!

Hope you enjoy

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"I am dying by inches from not having anybody to talk to about insects." - Charles Darwin
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby vuduman » Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:18 pm

Awesome!Wow.That is a sexy little snake too!Congratulations :)
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby Herald_23 » Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:18 pm

Some stunning underwater shots! Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing, Westley
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby sgmpanza5 » Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:13 am

Perfect Honeymoon: A wife, children and some reptiles.........what more can a man ask for!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby Skyeli » Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:20 am

Congratulations and they are some amazing pics.
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby Smeegle » Fri Jul 19, 2013 1:49 pm

Great post, thanks for sharing!
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby Jason&Sam » Fri Jul 19, 2013 6:34 pm

Congrats Westley. Nice post too.
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby Bushviper » Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:14 pm

Congratulations on the wedding. You picked a decent place for a honeymoon too.

Which reptile is indigenous?

Lovely photos.
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby Westley Price » Sat Jul 20, 2013 8:41 am

Thanx for the kind comments all.

BV, the Phelsuma cepediana is endemic to Mauritius.
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby Mehelya » Sat Jul 20, 2013 8:49 am

Lovely shots Westley! And congratulations are in order!

westley wrote:Calotes versicolor. Apparently the locals call these "chameleons" as they also have the ability to change colour slightly


Not maybe also because of their eye looking similar to a chameleon's eye? Just a thought.
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby Amphibian » Sat Jul 20, 2013 7:54 pm

Congratulations mate.
Lovely photos, really like the underwater pics.
I always thought the Lycodon species on the island was Lycodon aulicus - the Indian Wolf Snake. Is capucinus a subspecies?
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby froot » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:10 am

Congrats Westley!
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby michael » Mon Jul 22, 2013 11:32 am

I love the underwater shots; it looks like you had an amazing time. Congratulations’ on your wedding.
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Re: Few Mauritius Herps and LOTS of Snorkeling DUW

Postby Westley Price » Mon Jul 22, 2013 2:06 pm

Thanx guys, yeah we had a great time.

Amphibian, capunicus is a full species. The species' status has changed a lot in the past years from full species to subspecies. Here is a summary of changes since the species' discovery.

Lycodon capucinus H. BOIE in F. BOIE 1827: 551
Lycodon hebe - SCHLEGEL 1837
Lycodon aulicus (nec Coluber aulicus LINNAEUS 1758) - CANTOR 1847
Lycodon aulicum (partim) - DUMÉRIL et al. 1854: 369
Lycodon aulicus var. D - GÜNTHER 1858
Ophites septentrionalis (nec Ophites septentrionalis GÜNTHER 1875, now Dinodon septentrionalis) - MÜLLER 1887
Lycodon aulicus capucinus - BARBOUR 1912
Lycodon aulicus var. capucinus - HAAS 1950
Lycodon capucinus - TAYLOR & EIBEL 1958
Ophites aulicus - ZHAO & ADLER 1993
Lycodon aulicus capucinus — BROWN et al. 1996
Lycodon aulicus capucinus — SUYANTO et al. 1996
Lycodon capucinus — MANTHEY & GROSSMANN 1997: 362
Lycodon capucinus (Lycodon aulicus) — COX et al. 1998: 62
Lycodon aulicus — LANZA 1999
Lycodon capucinus — COGGER 2000: 731
Lycodon aulicus capucinus — FERNER et al. 2001
Lycodon capucinus — DE LANG & VOGEL 2005
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