Cano Palma- Day 24

Turtle census this morning was rainy and uneventful. The excavated nests were predated and we found no hatchlings. A brief patch of sun in the afternoon brought out the American whiptails in the garden but the rain started again before the afternoon herp surveys that night and we only found strawberry dart frogs and stream anoles in the plots.

That night we decided to get to higher land. This is exactly what I would do if I was a scaly creature in the rainy season. Our night walk around the cerro was led by Charlottes husband a local Costa Rican. It was amazing how such a slight difference in elevation made our night.

A Speckled-bellied Narrow-mouth Toad was seen in the leaf litter and managed to escape the four anxious herpers trying to catch it. But that odd creature wasn't the most interesting of the night. A Casque-headed lizard clung to tree. This bizarre lizard looks like a combination of a basilisk and iguana all in one!

Casque-headed Lizard (Corytophanes cristatus)

This lizard has many names such as helmeted basilisk, helmeted iguana and casque-headed lizard. It is more closely related to the iguanas than to basilisks or anoles.

 

Yellow spotted Night Lizard (Lepidophyma flavimaculatum)

The yellow-spotted tropical night lizard was a more traditional looking reptile.These are the largest of the night lizards and despite the fact this one has lost a chunk of his tail he was still about 12 centimeters long. These lizards like to live in wet climates and find homes in decaying logs during the daytime hours.

Yellow spotted Night Lizard (Lepidophyma flavimaculatum)

 A few commong sights were the Strawberry dart frogs, Brown basilisk, White-lipped anoles, Rain frogs, Jungle Frogs, Tink frogs

Even after all these wonderful sightings we were craving more. We wanted snakes and we were determined to find them! Our first stroke of luck was a juvenile Salmon-bellied Racer sitting on a palm leaf beside the trail.

Juvenile Salmon-bellied Racer (Mastigodryas melanolomus)

The speckled brown snake wasn't in it's characteristic adult colouration yet so we weren't quite sure what it was at first and handled it with hooks and tongs. This was a quick moving snake and was obviously very well adapted to escaping predators. It was hard to catch and hard to keep a hold of with hooks and tongs because of it's size and speed.  But as the saying goes patience is a virtue and we were so happy to find a snake after so much searching that we kept at it. After a while the snake tired and we were able to get a better look at it.

Juvenile Salmon-bellied Racer (Mastigodryas melanolomus)

Fer de Lance (Bothrops asper)

The next snake was waiting for us as we finished the loop of the cerro. On the side of the trail a snake sat in waiting for prey to cross it's path. Heat sensors compensating for vision in the pitch black darkness of the forest at night.

This species is called terciopelo by the locals and it is a snake to be wary of. It has a reputation to be responsible for the majority of venomous snakebites within it's range. This is likely due to it's cryptic colouring and it's proximity to humans. As with many snakes the large rodent populations near humans are attractive places to hunt and they get drawn into close contact which can be dangerous to them as well as people who are not expecting or prepared for an encounter.

The one Fer-de-Lance we encountered tonight was not fully grown (less than 3 ft) but it was big enough to be considered sexually mature. It was an amazing and thrilling experience to find one of these snakes.

Fer de Lance (Bothrops asper)