30 March 2006

It was good to be with herpers again. :) Winter gets lonesome: herps are sleeping, herpers are busy with other things, we have no meetings.

Chris brought two of his boas. He reports having more than 20 baby boas at home now!

boa

boa

another boa

Here's the Road Snake again, all grown up! I've not seen it for a year or so, not since one of the Beauty Pageants! It is very beautiful and quite friendly.

Sheena

Teri brought her young SpurThigh tortoise, Henrietta.
Things have not gone well with the adult SpurThighs over the winter. :(

On the table at the front of the meeting room was a display of mostly herp-related items. This skeleton in a shadowbox was very attractive. I didn't notice what kind of snake it was from.

snake skeleton

Part way through the meeting Charlie arrived. He'd just returned from an unexpected trip to the Galapagos Islands! Presently the entire island chain is a National Park, so nothing can be brought back or even touched. For this trip he purchased a new digital camera and says he has some 1600 pictures he must weed through! He's promised us a showing at some future meeting! :)

Various comments:

There are more than 50 islands in this chain, some are only tiny specks in the ocean. Most do not have water and are not inhabited by people. He saw a tortoise that must have weighed 500 pounds!
There are three kinds of snakes. He saw two. Because much of the landscape is volcanic, it is very easy for herps to disappear into the volcanic rock and that's that. They're just gone from view.
There are innumerable birds, and they're "tame" - you can walk up to them.
The climate is warm but not hot. Dry. The water is cold.
Because of the ocean currents, sailing ships often landed there. This was a bad thing as old-time sailors released pigs and goats which destroyed much of the flora and fauna on the islands
There are serious goat erradication efforts underway. On one island, 100,000 goats have been destroyed. They think they've finally gotten them all.
He saw sea turtles on the dunes
He saw a shark that turned and came towards him. Obviously he was able to escape! ;)
Unfortunately he'd brought a telephoto lens but he needed a macro, so many of his photos will not be as close-up as they could have been.
There are no amphibians - there's no water other than the ocean.
It is easy to see evolution in the different island tortoises.

We hope to soon have Will Leary bring some Carpet Pythons and have an evening devoted to them. He is a widely recognized expert!

Blue Ridge Naturalist (a program of NC Center for Creative Retirement, UNCA) is offering a program in June (IIUC) that might well be of interest to herpers. Their website: http://www.unca.edu/ncccr/BRNP/

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Pictures list

April 2006