I used to think it was a strange kind of cicada or grasshopper - but it turned out the relatively high-pitched and steady trills we hear in late spring are the mating calls of American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus). #Toads#Amphibians#Herps
I had a close encounter with what I believe to be a rattlesnake yesterday and I'm still a little freaked out every time I think about it. I was getting some macro shots of a candy barrel cactus and when I turned around it was right there, maybe 3ft from me. I have no clue if it snuck up on me (probably unlikely???) or if it was there the whole time. #reptiles#snakes#herps
I used to love this game that AfroHerper played on ExTwitter, so here's my version of it from the recent Mexico biodiversity cataloging expedition.
There is a Ditmars horned lizard ("horny toad") in this photo. It's the one I found and the first of only two found on the trip. It's a juvenile about 3" long.
If you see it, don't spill the beans! I'm hitting the road soon, but will give the answer tomorrow or tonight.
BTW, it's not hidden in the watermark or anything sneaky like that. They are just really hard to spot on the ground until they move.
One of the focuses of the recent Mexico biodiversity expedition was finding these interesting Ditmars' horned lizards. I found the first one, of only two found on the entire trip. This was not a range extension, per se, but more of an infill between known ranges in the sky island region of northern Sonora.
There is a tradition that you have to kiss the first one you find and then a bottle of tequila is opened for the occasion. Out of four trips, this was the first one I ever found.
They are fascinating little creatures. Their main predators are ravens and small canids like coyotes and foxes, so they are not particularly afraid of large animals like us or cows or deer. They are quite docile and even a wild one will take a grasshopper offered to it without trying to run away.
Alt text (because the site keeps crashing): first photo is a small horned lizard sitting in the palm of my hand. Second photo is me fake-kissing the same lizard while holding it.
Here’s one of the calico snakes (Oxyrhopus formosus) from the rain forest of NE Peru. This species almost seems to self-illuminate :) #herps#snakes#nature#naturephotography
Juvenile Yellow-spotted River Turtles (Podocnemis unifilis), photographed at the Quistacocha Zoo in Iquitos a long while back. #TurtleTuesday#herps#nature#turtles