Hello all. I made a short trip around Taiwan recently. Since I was travelling around with my beach-loving better half, I didn't have as much time as I would have liked for herping in the hills, but still managed to visit a couple of spots.
High in the mountains of Toroko Gorge National Park, I stopped to look for Sonan's salamander, Hynobius sonani (endemic, IUCN endangered). One rock-lift out of many proved successful, with the following individual. I didn't spend much time over the photography, as you can see from the quality, and let him get back under cover. This species comes in a variety of patterns and colours ... a base of grey, brownish or pink, with darker spotting or marbling. This one had quite a yellowish tail, which doesn't really show up in the pictures.
Hynobius sonani
A less successful trip was to Yushan National Park, which I'd visited two years ago. That time I'd found the Alishan salamander, Hynobius arisanensis (endemic, IUCN vulnerable), on a damp, overgrown trail. This time, the trail had been cleared and shabby shelters set up. No salamanders there now, because there was nowhere they could be ... all the rocks and vegetation were gone. Worse, a couple of toilet shelters had been put up over the small stream that acted as the water source for the area, and presumably a potential breeding ground for the salamanders. I contacted the park HQ and they said the human activity was due to university staff replanting native cypress, not farmers, and they would look into any environmental problems. I plan to go back in a few weeks and see if anything's changed.
Anyway, thanks for looking!
High in the mountains of Toroko Gorge National Park, I stopped to look for Sonan's salamander, Hynobius sonani (endemic, IUCN endangered). One rock-lift out of many proved successful, with the following individual. I didn't spend much time over the photography, as you can see from the quality, and let him get back under cover. This species comes in a variety of patterns and colours ... a base of grey, brownish or pink, with darker spotting or marbling. This one had quite a yellowish tail, which doesn't really show up in the pictures.
Hynobius sonani
A less successful trip was to Yushan National Park, which I'd visited two years ago. That time I'd found the Alishan salamander, Hynobius arisanensis (endemic, IUCN vulnerable), on a damp, overgrown trail. This time, the trail had been cleared and shabby shelters set up. No salamanders there now, because there was nowhere they could be ... all the rocks and vegetation were gone. Worse, a couple of toilet shelters had been put up over the small stream that acted as the water source for the area, and presumably a potential breeding ground for the salamanders. I contacted the park HQ and they said the human activity was due to university staff replanting native cypress, not farmers, and they would look into any environmental problems. I plan to go back in a few weeks and see if anything's changed.
Anyway, thanks for looking!