Saying goodbye to Bahamanian herping

Departure day had caught up with us, and departure time was approaching rapidly. We had a couple of hours left until checkout, so we decided to take one more stroll to a couple of South Bimini locales.

Destination, the vicinity of a well that actually held a little water.

We had little hope of completing our “Herps found on Bimini” checklist, but there was a chance of finding one or two additional taxa. And that was exactly what we accomplished.

More greenhouse frogs, Eleutherodactylus planirostris, an adult Cuban treefrog, Osteopilus septentrionalis, dozens of Cuban treefrog tadpoles, and many hermit crabs were added to our lists.

We had failed to find Ocellated Geckos (hadn’t even looked for these), the two species of Blind Snake, Dwarf Boas, still really needed to see a Bimini Boa on our own. But now it was ferry time. Soon the blue Caribbean waters were passing beneath us, then the deeper waters of the trench. Flying fish skittered and skimmed out of danger. A skyline. US Customs and Immigration. We were home again with memories-- pleasant memories -- anew. There seemed little question that we would be returning soon.

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.