Hynobius nigrescens (?) habitat

[Tim Johnson]

Went newt/sal hunting (with my camera) today to the Oze marsh area of Gunma Prefecture, located several hours northwest of Tokyo by train/bus/foot. Failed to turn up any Cynops pyrrhogaster but found some Hynobid larvae. The first ones I found were dark in color and appeared to be H.nigrescens, which I'm told inhabit the area. Then I found some lighter-colored, speckled ones. I can only guess what they are...

[Tim Johnson]

[Tim Johnson]

Gunma:

[Tim Johnson]

[Tim Johnson]

[Tim Johnson]

(Message edited by TJ on September 16, 2003)

Tim, once again I'm highly impressed with your insights into Japanese herpetology. I hope you continue to dazzle us with your wonderful photos and info.

I have one question: the tracks through the woods, are they concrete or wood (it's difficult to tell) ? I think they're quite interesting because they probably have little to no impact on the nature in the area given the fact that they take up little room relative to a paved road. A nice idea that I think should be used in other countries too.

[Tim Johnson]

Thanks John. Well, I'd been meaning to get out and about -- and finally did it. Yes, the wooden walkways sure are a great idea. Trekkers (and there are hoards of them at times!) are encouraged to stick to the walkways to preserve the marshland. I did all my newt/sal hunting from the platform, though it would have been great to be able to wade out into the water
According to what I read, there are some 20 km of wooden walkways in the Oze marshland (either already constructed or under construction -- I'm not quite sure) and they cover about a third of the marsh. In fact, they're built by a power company (Tokyo Electric), which owns most of the marshland, though it's part of Nikko National Park. Good PR for them.






(that's a near-morph larvae there in her hand)

Here are a few links with more pics of Oze:
http://members.rediff.com/aloksin/oze.htm
http://www.jinjapan.org/atlas/nature/nat18.html
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/RI/kan...a/oze/oze.html

Heya Tim,
nice pics but frankly, who cares about caudate larvae on this forum?
You should rather tell us who this nice young lady is and how she has gotten into this outdoor-caudate-larvae-catching adventure. Is she by any chance the Oze park version of a forest caudate ranger?

We're all curious.
Ralf

[Tim Johnson]

Not quite Ralf, but believe me, she wasn't down there digging through the mud reluctantly (or at least she seemed be enjoying herself...). I have to admit I've done a pretty good job converting her over to the cause! This here's a woman who knows the quickest way to a man's heart is through his hobby.

[Tim Johnson]

Some of the above pics were too dark and I've asked an administrator to delete them in favor of these brighter ones:

[Tim Johnson]

And these too:

Thanks for the info Tim. Have to remind my wife of this heart-hobby relation next time she complains about my temporary hatching setups in our living room (hey, can't let the newtlets hatch down in the basement all by themselves, gotta keep a close eye on them).

Ralf

[Tim Johnson]

hahaha, a familiar story! We cleaned our apartment the other day and it was SPOTLESS. Now, somehow or other, several small tanks and misc. containers have materialized on the kitchen table. forcing us to yet again eat our meals on the bed or sofa. Let's see, one full of salt water for hatching brine shrimp, another containing 8 newly hatched T.verrucosus larvae, a mini-aquarium containing 3 newly acquired freshwater blowfish, a small tub of aerated pond water...}

(Message edited by TJ on September 17, 2003)

[Tim Johnson]

By the way, here's another photo from Oze. OK, OK, I admit it, I posed the little critter for effect It wasn't just hanging out there on the log sunning itself.



I should add that I didn't take any larvae home, the area being part of a national park and all. Just some fallen leaves and soil to use as tank substrate, and pond water that hopefully contains micro-critters for my T. verrucosus larvae to dine on

(Message edited by TJ on September 17, 2003)

Tim, just a tip : if you want to do this again, take a plastic bag with you and put in some water then shoot your pictures from the sides. I've done so for Eurycea larvae and it worked pretty well. I even put the plastic bag on the ground and shot them from above

[Tim Johnson]

Thanks a lot Henk, I'll surely try out that technique

The best pic I managed to get was the 2nd one, and I had to put the critter on a leaf and move it into the sun. A bit unnatural -- staged in fact. And there's also the consideration that one shouldn't be handling wild animals in a national park in the first place! (I was gently reminded of this by somebody here the other day )

Most of the pics I took of the larvae in the water were spoiled by the reflection. But I'm getting a state-of-the-art, high-powered camera this December that will put an end to that and various other photo-related problems I've faced!

Well I've just ordered the minotla A1 myself : 28-200 mm , 2,8 aperture, antishake, macro at both focal lengths and object tracking ....
I don't even have all of this with my slr...

Tim,

What are the ambient and water temps there?

Greg