Herping Andalusia

Last week, Mark Bakkers and I travelled with fellow students Peter, Diederik and Philip to Andalusia mainly to observe herpetofauna. We had one major problem; except for few days rain two weeks ago, the area was as dry as could be. The Cota Donana was dry, same for the mountains in Cadiz and Huelva. The combination with a musquito plague in the Donana resulted in almost no anurans.

Large searches were however done for the caudates; in the end we managed to find Lissotriton boscai in fountains in the mountains, and after long, demotivating searches two juvenile and one adult Salamandra salamandra longirostris, which was at least my highlight of the trip. Triturus pygmaeus adults hadn't entered the water yet, but juvenils were usually present under stones. The last day we decided that we couldn't leave without seeing S. s. morenica, and with lots of luck and some hints we found two adults north of Sevilla.

We observed other nice species like Discoglossus (galganoi) jeanne, Chameleons and lots of lizards and snake species.

Thanks to David for his company, and others who gave hints for the trip!

Wouter,

Great photos and report. I think that may be the first S. longirostris photo I have ever seen. How large were the adults? What would you say were their identifying characteristics?

Travis

nice shots, it's always love to shots of T. Marms in the wild

That is the first longirostris I've seen as well. Thanks for sharing. They definitely fit their name, the snout reminds me of a frog.

Love it, rewarding trip..
The underwater shot, did you take that in the field? looks great

Bravo for your persistence, despite the weather and mosquitoes, Wouter. Thanks for posting the photos.

Thanks for the comments everyone,

Travis, the adult was about 16-18 cm. Characteristic for the subspecies is the lack of red coloration (which is present in all "surrounding" areas, although these are quite far away). Also, the very pointy nose is characteristic.

Sam, we used a small plastic container with a terrarium background to make the newt shots. Worked quite well, but I think that a glass container is even better!

Congrats! Amazing animals indeed. Next time i go herping i´m definitely bringing a glass container. Plastic ones always make you loose a lot of definition, plus they usually have rounded corners which aren´t good for photography. Anyway, nice photos, and nice travel. Hope you enjoyed my country hehe, even if it´s dry as hell. Oh btw...just a little comment..it would be Andaluzia