Azores Herping

Allistor

Allistor

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Finally I got the chance to see the only newt species that exists in Azores Islands: Triturus Carnifex.

Their habitat pictures:
allistor-albums-herping-picture14082-img-3748.jpg


allistor-albums-herping-picture14077-img-3741.jpg


Some underwater photos:
allistor-albums-herping-picture14081-img-3732.jpg


allistor-albums-herping-picture14080-img-3733.jpg


allistor-albums-herping-picture14079-img-3737.jpg


allistor-albums-herping-picture14078-img-3740.jpg


The water was freezing to death but I got my shots :D
I didn't caught any to take pictures outside of the water since it is a protected specie and I wasn't looking for trouble with local authorities that are constantly watching what is happening on the nature.
Hope you enjoy it and maybe I could get later some photos with them on terrestrial phase.
 
awesome! I assume they were introduced there? What other herps live in the Azores? I always wanted to visit there; I've been to Madeira once, that's as close as I got so far :)
 
Excellent! I had heard of this colony, but to see it in pictures is so awesome!
Thank you for sharing this fantastic environment with us!



 
Molch said:
awesome! I assume they were introduced there? What other herps live in the Azores? I always wanted to visit there; I've been to Madeira once, that's as close as I got so far :)
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They were introduced and according to some theories they came with some aquatic plants that possibly got T. Carnifex eggs. There is another theory that maybe they could have been introduced when people started to introduce fishes on our lagoons that were exported from Triturus Carnifex native countries. That newt was discovered about one century ago.
We have 1 other amphibian here that was introduced a long time ago too: Rana Pirezi.
Madeira is a beautiful place too, right? :D

Thx for the comment :wacko:
 
Indeed it is beautiful. Lovely pictures, thanx for sharing!
It´s funny how an introduced species gets protection...it happens here with Chamaeleo chamaeleon. I never really understod the reasons behind this protections.
 
I've been to Madeira once,
Click to expand...

You´ve been on my island?:D I´ll not ask you if you liked since its the best spot in this planet. Nothing is so pretty and good like in Madeira :D Perfect spot. Only one failure, doesnt have any Caudate species :(.


Allistor my friend, those are indeed awesome herping trip pictures. Also those Carnifex are simply amazing. Impressive how 100years of isolation of this population changes a specie. More couple decades and we have a distinct subspecies from carnifex in the middle of the atlantic!! Portuguese carnifex'es :rolleyes: Post some more pics we wanna see moAr!
 
Azhael said:
Indeed it is beautiful. Lovely pictures, thanx for sharing!
It´s funny how an introduced species gets protection...it happens here with Chamaeleo chamaeleon. I never really understod the reasons behind this protections.
Click to expand...

As far as I know they got protected due to the berne convention. Someone told me that all the countries that joined that convention were "forced" to protect the species that belong to the other countries that joined the berne convention.

Let me share some more "Carnifex Safari" photos:

allistor-albums-herping-picture14088-img-3739.jpg


allistor-albums-herping-picture14087-img-3730.jpg


allistor-albums-herping-picture14084-img-3719.jpg


allistor-albums-herping-picture14083-img-3718.jpg


allistor-albums-herping-picture14085-img-3721.jpg


allistor-albums-herping-picture14086-img-3724.jpg
 
eljorgo said:
You´ve been on my island?:D I´ll not ask you if you liked since its the best spot in this planet. Nothing is so pretty and good like in Madeira :D Perfect spot. Only one failure, doesnt have any Caudate species :(.
!
Click to expand...

yes - not to hijack the thread, but yep, Madeira is a stunningly beautiful place. :)
 
those pics are so cool. thanks for sharing them.

i can't wait to finsh school and start traveling :p
 
Nice pics and very interesting!

Impressive how 100years of isolation of this population changes a specie
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In what aspect did they change? Are there any obvious changes visible?
 
on which island is this? And which of the Azores islands have T. carnifex? Are there any indigenous reptiles?
 
Last edited:
Molch said:
on which island is this? And which of the Azores islands have T. carnifex? Are there any indigenous reptiles?
Click to expand...

Well the only indigenous reptile that we have here it's the sea turtle (Dermochelys Coriácea). There is an introduced land reptile too but that one was introduced and its a lizard (Lacerta dugesii).
If you are really so interested in azorean animal species I recommend you to visit this site:
Azorean Biodiversity Portal

Enjoy Azores :D
 
In what aspect did they change? Are there any obvious changes visible?
Click to expand...

They are surely diferent both geneticly and in morphology. Visibly its noticiable. They are now a kind of new carnifex. I cant explain in witch they are diferent but If you put both european and azorean males or females side to side, you´ll get blown. Several charateristic are truly diferent, with some individuals look a bit more normal. As usual. Besides all this (dorsal and flancks) I also heard from a book about them of the existance of all red, all white and all black, belly's. Its surely amazing.

Allistor next time take a net and flip them to get to see the bellys.:happy:



Cheers,
 
Jennewt said:
I know this question was well-intended, but please note that this area of the forum has some limitations on discussing localities.
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...37-important-locality-information-policy.html
Click to expand...

Thx for the advise.
I needed an expert to show me how and when to see them because they are not that easy to see to unexperienced people on the field.
Anyway I agree with that rule as it could protect many species but I reinforce the idea that only knowing the island where I live isn't enough to see the Carnifexs. I live here since ever and I only got the chance to see them some days ago after spending many months looking for them and I always got a map with points where the are. But that map is meant to be used by experts on the field. By the way I don't want to see that species disappearing due to people who just care about money or what-else reason. They are already facing problems due to the lack of water on their reproduction spots.

And eljorgo as reason when he says that they are kindly different than the ones from their native countries. Some develop stunning color patterns and color variations that I never saw on the Internet photos that I usually search.
Let's see if I could get some decent photos of them next time :happy:
 
Here is a update to that thread... I still dont have decent photos but I decided to share somethings about my last herping. This time I only found males in that spot and it was a different spot then the last one's I showed before. A least I've made a cool video with a great male that I saw there.

YouTube

This time i had the chance to see them going around and they don't even look stressed with my presence. I got the chance to take 2 males to photograph on my hands but the pictures weren't that good but I share the best one anyway.

allistor-albums-herping-picture14421-triturus-carnifex.jpg


Hope you like it :happy:
 
It is very curious how they adapt the newts, in Huelva (Spain) from what I've read on the internet, there is a population of cynops pyrrhogaster.
 
Yeah they are really good on what concerns to adapt to a new place. As an example here in Azores they don't have a stable hibernation since the temperatures don't let them to. Sometimes they get their metabolism very low during some days or even just trough nights, remaining active during day. But that semi-hibernation state its enough to make them to get their biologic clock adjusted to reproduce.
Letting newts go away to the wild it's enough to be sure that they will, in a decade or so, get their population pretty much established somewhere around ponds. Those cynops pyrrhogaster were released on the wild or they simply gone away from their homes regarding it's owner negligence. That's why its need very caution when keeping newts since their adaptation is so good.
 
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