RAUK - Archived Forum - Herps in Cyprus

Got back from the Protaras area of Cyprus yesterday after a class week of herp hunting. The first few days were cloudy and rainy a bit, but it was unbroken sunshine for the remainder of the holiday which was a relief. Here are some pics;

Bedriaga's Frogs/Levant Water Frogs (Phelophax bedriagae) were found in one of four irrigation pools beside a vineyard, along with treefrogs and common & green toads. After I made such a noise falling over a very annoying tree root, almost snapping the front of my camera off on an old discarded lawnmower engine, and disturbing 30+ noisey frogs, I got into position by the edge of the pool and waited for about 10 mins - they all re-emerged and got straight back to croaking and mating, with one male frog even jumping onto other males in what must've been his patch of water  Yah, Great Success!!!

Kotschy's Gecko was found underneath a log, which was under a tree.

My first ever Green Toad, unfortunatley missing one eye (not shown in picture)

Two Treefrogs (Hyla savignyi) at it...

Treefrog pools below, with the tree behing being where the gecko was found

Agama, as seen everywhere in all weather conditions. I went out for a run one morning whilst my dad and sister watched the Grand Prix, and I was chasing this lizard close to the beach when it ran into an old bin underneath a bush. After a few mins it calmed down, and allowed me to take some decent pics of it, but not before hissing and chewing on my thumb with surprising power

Acanthodactylus s. sheriberi I think, found under a rock near the beach, and all along the side of the track used to get there

Hi Dan, Steve

Your pictures are great Dan. I lived in Cyprus for 9 years, 1984 to about 1993 and spent a lot of time looking for reptiles. Used to see a lot of large Black Whip snakes (Caluber Caspius?) and Montepelliers which seemed to be the most common species at least around Larnaca where I lived. Chameleons were also fairly common but difficult to spot hidden amongst the foilage.

Snake George used to live in a village called Tsada up in the hills above Paphos and had his open air reptilarium nearby. I dont know if its still open these days? but hopefully he's still helping to promote conservation on the island.

Here are a few pics from those days that I scanned into my pc, sorry they are not brilliant quality, the first was taken at Mackenzie Beach at Larnaca after I got to the scene too late to save the snake being killed by a local cafe owner. I think it may be a Balken Whip Snake? but was never sure as this species didn't seem to be common and I never saw a similar patterened snake on the island.

The second snake was a captive at somebodys house in Larnaca that I went to have a look at one day. It kindly bit my friends finger while he held the snake for my shot. He survived! At the time I didn't know that this was a coin snake. The species is described in Collins Reptile and Amphibians (Britain and Europe) in the 2nd edition.

Finally the cat snake was a part of travelling zoo that visisted Larnaca but I remember snake George also had some in captivity. In the wild I only ever saw a dead specimen. I suppose this is a secretive nocturnal animal that is normally hard to find and maybe not common on the island.

If anyone else has Cypriot reptile news please let me know.

Dave

Thanks for such positive comments

p.s. I also saw a big (thick as my arm at a guess) black whipsnake on the scrubland next to the beach on easter morning at about 8am, but didn't get a picture because it bolted off as soon as we saw each other...

Dan