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- John Clare
I apologise for the lack of salamanders. However there are frogs. I thought I'd post this since it was my first legitimate field trip since we made the field herping accounts area. Enjoy!
I just returned on Monday from a vacation on Saba, a 5 square mile volcanic island in the Caribbean on about the same latitude as Guatemala. Calling it a volcanic island is probably a misnomer - it's basically a single volcano.
Here are photographs and some goodies to go with them. The photos start near the lowest part of the island and end near the summit of the volcano, just to give you an idea of where each species prefers to live. Habitat near sea level is somewhat arid, becoming more lush as altitude increases, eventually becoming rain forest and then elfin cloud forest near the summit.
Saba has two species of anole but this one, Anolis sabanus, is unique to the island and quite distinct in coloration. This is a male and quite a poser. This species is common at all altitudes on the island:
At night the Saban Anoles climb up onto the fronds of this plant. They are quite compliant at night and it's possible to get very close, as the next photo illustrates:
This photo was taken at about 11 pm local time. I found it odd that the anoles spend the night in such exposed positions - a person could quite literally walk around with a bucket and pluck them off the bushes at night with ease:
I believe this is the female of Anolis sabanus. Quite drab in comparison to the male. This female was sunning herself on a wooden deck:
These eggs were found under a large rock. I thought they were the eggs of Anolis sabanus because the species was quite numerous near the rock. I've been told that they are more likely to be gecko eggs, however. There are 3 species of gecko on the island. I found a small gecko under a rock, too small for these eggs unless it was a juvenile, not too far away from the eggs but unfortunately the photo I got before it got away was pretty bad:
In the low drier areas of the island it is possible to observe groups of the Green Iguana, Iguana iguana. Only problem is that the adults are not green! This melanistic race seems to be unique to Saba. Older animals are almost completely black. This one was rather large (quite a few feet) and by the color it is probably not young:
At the lower altitudes of the island this frog species predominates (there are thousands of them per acre). The males of this species take possession of the center of this plant and call from there. I assume they use the plant for breeding sites due to the fact that the plant retains moisture at its center (note that Eleutherodactylus is a genus that usually skips the tadpole stage and produces tiny froglets from its eggs). Internet research says that there is only one species of frog on Saba, Johnston's Whistling Frog, Eleutherodactylus johnstonei. Well this isn't that species. There are at least 2 species of Eleutherodactylus on the island, and I suspect there are three. I tracked this frog down by its call. I am an amateur sound recordist and here is an mp3 of many of this species calling in a small area, with some crickets in the background: http://www.caudata.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=2806&d=1207206608
This male Johnston's Whistling Frog, Eleutherodactylus johnstonei, was tracked down by its call too. It's quite distinct from the other and I could not find this frog at low altitude, unlike the other Eleutherodactylus species in the previous photo. Here is a recording of several of these frogs in a small area, but I think there is a third species of frog audible in the background (I never could find that third species - it wasn't very numerous and it didn't call from easily accessible areas): http://www.caudata.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=2805&d=1207206591
This is Mount Scenary on Saba, the dormant volcano and highest point by far on the island. Please excuse the quality of this photo - it turned out to be the only one I took of the mountain. As you can see the upper part of the mountain is in cloud and indeed, the top of the mountain is elfin cloud forest, with the lower slopes being rain forest. The next few photos were taken on the slopes of this peak:
High up on Mount Scenary, getting into the rain forest altitude, the Red-Bellied Racer, Alsophis rufiventris, is most numerous. This Colubrid snake is unique to the islands of Saba and nearby Saint Eustatius. As you can see from this photo it's quite nicely colored and I saw adults all over 4 feet long. They sun themselves in clearings on the rain forested slopes. This one was beside the main path up the mountain:
This is a close-up of the previous snake:
In total I saw 6 adult specimens of the Red-Bellied Racer, Alsophis rufiventris, on Saba. This individual was the largest snake by far. It was easily 4 feet long and probably more like 5. I believe it is a different sex to the snake in the previous photos because the coloration is quite different and it was much larger than the individuals of the other's color. This comparison was easy to make because this snake was found less than two feet from an individual of the other color variant. Both were sunning themselves on rocks near the main path up the mountain.
This is a close-up of that individual. This photo is only a slight crop - this snake was quite at ease with me approaching it with my 60 mm macro lens and flash:
There's no shortage of food for herpetiles on the island of Saba. This cricket was found at night. Its body was several inches long (4 inches/10 cm at least I believe). I don't know the species (addendum: I've been told it's a Katydid):
This species of large black beetle was very common at night - in fact it was hard to avoid treading on them at night in places. Again, I don't know the species:
I hope you all enjoyed that. I promise more salamanders next time!
-John
I just returned on Monday from a vacation on Saba, a 5 square mile volcanic island in the Caribbean on about the same latitude as Guatemala. Calling it a volcanic island is probably a misnomer - it's basically a single volcano.
Here are photographs and some goodies to go with them. The photos start near the lowest part of the island and end near the summit of the volcano, just to give you an idea of where each species prefers to live. Habitat near sea level is somewhat arid, becoming more lush as altitude increases, eventually becoming rain forest and then elfin cloud forest near the summit.
Saba has two species of anole but this one, Anolis sabanus, is unique to the island and quite distinct in coloration. This is a male and quite a poser. This species is common at all altitudes on the island:
At night the Saban Anoles climb up onto the fronds of this plant. They are quite compliant at night and it's possible to get very close, as the next photo illustrates:
This photo was taken at about 11 pm local time. I found it odd that the anoles spend the night in such exposed positions - a person could quite literally walk around with a bucket and pluck them off the bushes at night with ease:
I believe this is the female of Anolis sabanus. Quite drab in comparison to the male. This female was sunning herself on a wooden deck:
These eggs were found under a large rock. I thought they were the eggs of Anolis sabanus because the species was quite numerous near the rock. I've been told that they are more likely to be gecko eggs, however. There are 3 species of gecko on the island. I found a small gecko under a rock, too small for these eggs unless it was a juvenile, not too far away from the eggs but unfortunately the photo I got before it got away was pretty bad:
In the low drier areas of the island it is possible to observe groups of the Green Iguana, Iguana iguana. Only problem is that the adults are not green! This melanistic race seems to be unique to Saba. Older animals are almost completely black. This one was rather large (quite a few feet) and by the color it is probably not young:
At the lower altitudes of the island this frog species predominates (there are thousands of them per acre). The males of this species take possession of the center of this plant and call from there. I assume they use the plant for breeding sites due to the fact that the plant retains moisture at its center (note that Eleutherodactylus is a genus that usually skips the tadpole stage and produces tiny froglets from its eggs). Internet research says that there is only one species of frog on Saba, Johnston's Whistling Frog, Eleutherodactylus johnstonei. Well this isn't that species. There are at least 2 species of Eleutherodactylus on the island, and I suspect there are three. I tracked this frog down by its call. I am an amateur sound recordist and here is an mp3 of many of this species calling in a small area, with some crickets in the background: http://www.caudata.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=2806&d=1207206608
This male Johnston's Whistling Frog, Eleutherodactylus johnstonei, was tracked down by its call too. It's quite distinct from the other and I could not find this frog at low altitude, unlike the other Eleutherodactylus species in the previous photo. Here is a recording of several of these frogs in a small area, but I think there is a third species of frog audible in the background (I never could find that third species - it wasn't very numerous and it didn't call from easily accessible areas): http://www.caudata.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=2805&d=1207206591
This is Mount Scenary on Saba, the dormant volcano and highest point by far on the island. Please excuse the quality of this photo - it turned out to be the only one I took of the mountain. As you can see the upper part of the mountain is in cloud and indeed, the top of the mountain is elfin cloud forest, with the lower slopes being rain forest. The next few photos were taken on the slopes of this peak:
High up on Mount Scenary, getting into the rain forest altitude, the Red-Bellied Racer, Alsophis rufiventris, is most numerous. This Colubrid snake is unique to the islands of Saba and nearby Saint Eustatius. As you can see from this photo it's quite nicely colored and I saw adults all over 4 feet long. They sun themselves in clearings on the rain forested slopes. This one was beside the main path up the mountain:
This is a close-up of the previous snake:
In total I saw 6 adult specimens of the Red-Bellied Racer, Alsophis rufiventris, on Saba. This individual was the largest snake by far. It was easily 4 feet long and probably more like 5. I believe it is a different sex to the snake in the previous photos because the coloration is quite different and it was much larger than the individuals of the other's color. This comparison was easy to make because this snake was found less than two feet from an individual of the other color variant. Both were sunning themselves on rocks near the main path up the mountain.
This is a close-up of that individual. This photo is only a slight crop - this snake was quite at ease with me approaching it with my 60 mm macro lens and flash:
There's no shortage of food for herpetiles on the island of Saba. This cricket was found at night. Its body was several inches long (4 inches/10 cm at least I believe). I don't know the species (addendum: I've been told it's a Katydid):
This species of large black beetle was very common at night - in fact it was hard to avoid treading on them at night in places. Again, I don't know the species:
I hope you all enjoyed that. I promise more salamanders next time!
-John
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