First one more snake. A speckled rattlesnake, Crotalus mitchelli. I didn't get a single half decent image of it but Christian did. A couple of pictures when it was on the hook. This was a lifer for both of us and was actually one of the species on my 2012 Wish List.
A commenter on Flickr, who has a lot of great herp and desert shots himself, suggested that we should be careful with gravid females, which I totally agree with. This might have been a gravid female, but I am not sure. It certainly looks plump in the mid-section in this image, but we did not handle it enough to determine sex, let alone whether it was gravid. When we were looking at the snake in live time, I don't remember thinking it was gravid, but it is certainly possible we over-looked this in our excitement, and now I am starting to convince myself that this is sounding a little familiar. However, we simply moved it to a safer spot where it quickly disappeared into the rocks. What do you guys think in regards to it being gravid?
Another King of the Rocks, who will also disappear into the cracks when you try and sneak up on him. Otherwise he is macho and likes to do push-ups for all of the other chucks to see. Look at those biceps.
And a few pictures of a juvenile chuckwalla, the guy above was not the dad though, their ranges are not that large. The baby was found several miles down the road. My first baby Chuck.
Finally, the only desert tortoise of the trip, but this was the third year in a row we have seen one of these majestic critters. There really is no better way to start your day than stumbling upon a desert tortoise in the early morning light. This one was crossing an old dirt road.
She didn't need any help across the road. Made it across just fine herself, thank you very much.
We did pull the cholla needle out of her eye for her though.
Photo Credits: First 5 photos and last 2 by Christian. Remaining by JK.
As always, but it bears repeating, no animals were collected on our trip.
Rattlesnakes, Chuckers, and Desert Tortoises!? Are you kidding?! The western US is like a mythical land of herps to me! Full of creatures that I only hear about in storybooks, alongside unicorns and will o' the wisps! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
mental image of bro chuckwalla doing push ups has me lolling
ReplyDeleteI had to stop myself from making a Jersey Shore joke with hi m.
DeleteYou guys are having too much fun!
ReplyDeleteHey that was me who commented on flickr. Just found this blog while doing a little cyber-herping in the Mojave. I never asked on flickr but what that speck from the Granite mountains? I was curious if that range was mitchelli (specks) or stephensi (panamints). You may have confirmed my guess.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts on it were mitchelli, but I would love to hear your thoughts on it. To me, I don't see the merging of the last two black tail bands indicative of stephensi. In this picture they look separate even if the second to last one is an incomplete band. Also this was south of the Mojave river (by maybe 20 miles) which seems to be the accepted boundary. One might argue that it is close enough to the boundary that it might be an integrate (if these two species have even been shown to integrate).
DeleteThanks for stopping by the blog. As you can see if you take a look around we are far from experts in a single field and rather dabble a bit in a bunch of fields, so I am always open to hearing from people who know more than I do.
Let me know what you think.
Hey that was me who commented on flickr. Just found this blog while doing a little cyber-herping in the Mojave. I never asked on flickr but what that speck from the Granite mountains? I was curious if that range was mitchelli (specks) or stephensi (panamints). You may have confirmed my guess.
ReplyDelete